Amen Se Kari Me Djesef
by Quillfeather Nib
Summary: Stuck on an island in the Pacific, the former pharaoh Atem is certainly NOT in the afterlife where he's supposed to be. Peace won't last for long. No cards can save him; playtime is now over. Some parts may contain authentic Egyptian translations.
1. Chapter 1

_"__**I**__f every prophecy ever made in all of history came to pass, the world would have been destroyed a hundred times over by now... __**T**__here would be nothing left for you to save... __**A**__nd since the world remains...it is clear that some prophecies...were never meant to come true..."_

Those words seemed to seep from memory, echoing in the wind as it blew through the unruly hair of a man in his early to mid-twenties as he stood alone on a tiny shoreline. _'Those words set me free from my fate,' _he mused as the cool ocean waves washed over his bare feet. Despite the peaceful calm, an air of forlorn solitude seemed to hang around him like a shroud. The breeze carried away his sigh as he sat down in the sand. His gaze turned to the northwest without conscious thought. In that direction lay everything he cared about, and it was because he cared for it that he remained on this tiny island, in a voluntary exile.

_'I may live...but I will not allow the dark forces to exploit that fact to harm innocent people... I miss you...Aibou...' _The man closed his eyes, easily bringing to mind memories and images of everything and everyone he missed. It had been a long time since he had seen or spoken to them. As the warmth of the sun spilled over his deep tan skin, the man dozed off, his reminiscences mingling with dreams. Eventually a particularly strong gust of wind blew a ripe coconut out of a palm tree growing less than a meter away.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL!" The man sat up in the sand, rubbing the spot on his forehead where the coconut smacked him right between the eyes. "Stupid coconuts," he muttered. It was not the first time he'd had one land on him.

Although it was not his native language, the man spoke in Japanese out of habit. He'd first learned the language almost six years ago, when he'd found himself in Japan. Learning Japanese had actually been somewhat unintentional on his part. He'd simply picked it up while borrowing knowledge of the language from a native speaker. His accent was so similar to that of the boy he'd picked up the language from that anyone who listened to them both might assume it was the same person speaking.

The man picked up the offending coconut and tossed it into the waves. "Good riddance," he mumbled. Brushing sand off his arms and legs, he got to his feet and walked along the shore to his house.

The house was more like a small hut, only twelve by seven and a half meters. On the outside, the walls looked like plain beige stone. On the inside were four rooms, all sparsely furnished with the basic necessities and only a little extra here and there. The front room had a small table, couch and an armchair, along with a small TV in the corner that almost never picked up anything good. Currently the TV was showing what looked like an incredibly static filled version of the weather channel. Standing against the right-hand wall from the entrance, a small bookshelf held a mix of paperbacks and hardcovers, some magazines and comics, a handful of old newspapers, and two framed photographs.

One photograph was polished and professional, depicting roughly a dozen people posing like wacky tourists against a vividly clear blue horizon. Thrusting into the sky like jagged teeth, the famous Great Pyramids were visible in the distance behind them. The other was a grainy picture from a photo booth showing the young man and another, slightly younger man. Both men had similar spiky hair, though the younger man was identifiable as Japanese by his lighter skin tone and the shape of his eyes. Both were grinning like fools for the camera, leaning towards each other in a one armed hug. Though it looked crude and simple in comparison to the group photo, the man considered the snapshot to be infinitely more valuable.

Beside the bookshelf, a door was set into the wall. It looked like it might hide a closet if not for the large eye symbol carved into it. On the opposite wall, a partly open door on the left revealed a bedroom, with the edge of an unmade bed just visible. A doorway in the wall directly across from the front door led to a small kitchen with counters all along one side. A cluster of dirty dishes sat on the counter in between a microwave and the sink. Sitting in the kitchen corner was a small table that could seat two, and a pantry, deep freeze, refrigerator, and electric stove all lined the wall opposite the counters. The small rooms and simple furnishings were a stark contrast for someone who had once lived in a lush palace as a Pharaoh of Egypt, even if it had been over three thousand years ago.

Atem paid no attention to the fuzzy man on the TV, babbling something about a storm system moving somewhere between the Hawaiian Islands and the Bonin Islands. He headed back to the kitchen. Long ago, there had been many servants that would bring him food when it was time to eat. Here, in this modern day kitchen, there was no one else to hear his stomach grumble. If he was hungry, he had to fix himself something to eat. Atem reached in the pantry for a cup of instant ramen, keeping well away from the stove. It may get bland after a while, but at least he could cook the noodles without destroying the kitchen.

As the microwave hummed, he glanced at a calendar on the wall. A red star marked a date that was two days off. Supply day, the one day each month he saw another living person. "Wonder who'll visit this time...? Last time it was Ishizu who brought my monthly food stocks," he mumbled with a slightly bitter tone.

The shrill beep of the microwave interrupted Atem's thoughts. Grabbing a fork, he carried the steaming Styrofoam cup to a chair on the porch, idly wondering what his old friend was doing. _'If Yugi were here he'd probably complain about the lack of burger restaurants,'_ he thought with a small chuckle. Then his smile faded a little. _'I've got to stop that...I'll probably never see him again... I need to accept it...if I go around him or anyone else... I'm just a magnet for trouble.' _"Ow!" He held the hot ramen away as a burning sensation spilled across his tongue.

"When am I going to learn to let that cool before eating...?" he mumbled as he let the stiff breeze chill his dinner. "This is the fifth time I've burned myself..." He blew on the noodles before trying to eat them again, gaze drifting toward the northwest. Atem knew that if he could travel that direction, and travel far enough, he would reach Domino City. And there he could find Yugi. It had been nearly seven months since they had last seen each other, but sometimes it felt like lifetimes ago. And other times it felt as if it had only been yesterday.

_The time was seven months before the present day. The place was the shrine hidden in the depths of Kul Elna. After spending nearly half a decade sharing Yugi's body, Atem had his memory back. And he was finally separated from Yugi. All they had left to do was finish the ceremonial duel, the duel that would send Atem to the afterlife, and destroy the dark magic of the Millennium Items forever. It was Atem's turn, and he had just finished summoning all three of the Egyptian God Monsters to the field._

_Anzu turned away from the duel. It wasn't that she couldn't watch, but something had caught her attention. She thought she could hear a strange whistling noise that no one else seemed to notice. Curious, she took a couple steps toward the stairway that led to the surface. She never had time to warn the others. In an instant, the low whistle became a roaring howl, as wind and sand exploded into the room._

_"What's going on!" Yugi cried out, shielding his face with his hands and duel disk._

_"I don't know!" Atem yelled back. He was also shielding his eyes from the stinging assault in the air._

_"Where'd this mess come from?" Jounouchi exclaimed._

_"It's a sandstorm!" Malik cried out._

_"How are we supposed to duel like this!" Yugi asked. His voice was hard to hear over the raging wind._

_"I can't even see my hand in front of my face!" Atem called back._

_The narrow stairway acted like a wind tunnel, causing the storm to blow faster as it raged both above and below ground. Sand and dust flew through the air, causing stinging eyes and coughing fits. It worked its way into cloth, hair, and every other available crevice. It even worked its way into the metallic seams of the duel disks. The computer circuitry had never been designed for use during a desert storm. With each dust particle and sand grain, the duel disks began to overheat._

_Atem kept his face tucked into the crook of his elbow, shielding his eyes from the worst of the storm. All thoughts of finishing the ceremonial duel had vanished from his mind. His main worry was if Yugi and the others were alright. "Ow," he mumbled as he felt something on his arm growing hot, burning him. He shook his arm as a reflex, trying to knock the heat source away, but it was stuck. "Wha- The duel disk?" It was hard to tell over the noise of the wind, but Atem thought he could hear a strange hum coming from the machine, like an overworked fan. _**'**What's going on?**'** _he wondered._

_"Yugi!" he called out into the storm, "Is your duel disk making strange noises?"_

_A sound that might have been a cough was carried away by the wind. "What?" Yugi managed to call back._

_"I said IS YOUR DUEL- GAH!"_

_At that moment, electrical malfunctions caused sparks to shoot out from the duel disk. Atem clawed at the fastener that held the machine on his arm. His instinct was to get the thing as far away from him as he could, ceremonial duel be damned. He managed to fling it away seconds before the heat and electricity caused the duel disk to explode. No more than twenty seconds later, an echoing explosion and a cry told him that the same thing had happened to Yugi's duel disk. Now cards joined the sand and wind maelstrom. An involuntary hiss of pain forced itself through Atem's clenched teeth as one of the cards struck his cheek, leaving a long paper cut that burned as the sand assaulted it. Then the wind died down a bit, its roar muffled._

_"What happened?" asked Honda as he rubbed grit from his eyes._

_"The storm is not over," Rishid's voice told them, "But this should help." Rishid was standing in front of the doorway, holding his cloak against the stone wall. His improvised curtain kept some of the wind and much of the sand confined to the stairwell. The wind that did get through wasn't enough to blind them._

_"Yugi!" Atem ran across the duel platform. Yugi was sitting on his knees, the wreckage of his duel disk near by. His expression winced in pain as he held his left arm. His jacket sleeve had burned away, and his forearm had a shiny burn, as well as a couple gashes, all from the heat and explosion of his duel disk._

_A hot throbbing pain caused Atem to wince. Glancing down at his own arm, he saw shiny white burns, pale and blistering against his own skin. For once, he was a little regretful that he preferred to drape his jacket across his shoulders. Then he glanced back at Yugi's arm and decided the jacket would have offered little protection from the heat even if he had been wearing it properly. He tried not to imagine what would have happened if he hadn't managed to get his duel disk off before it exploded. He laid a hand on Yugi's shoulder to get his attention._

_"Are you alright, Aibou?"_

_"I think so," Yugi said through clenched teeth._

_"Pharaoh! Yugi!" Ishizu came up to them. "What happened?"_

_"Good question," muttered Yugi, opening one eye to see what was going on._

_"Something caused the duel disks to malfunction," Atem told them both. "But I don't know what."_


	2. Chapter 2

Atem sighed as he looked out over the ocean. The western sky dripped with colors painted by a sinking sun. Vibrant red on the horizon faded to a deep purple-blue towards the east, with the rest of the rainbow spread in between. "The setting sun...the Sun God prepares for his nightly journey through the underworld, to be reborn tomorrow as the rising sun," he whispered the paraphrased Egyptian myth as he watched the sun dip lower. In the distance, he noticed a thin veil of clouds draped across the heavens. Their appearance meant the promise of rain in the near future, but they didn't worry him. During the few months he'd been here, the worst storms always seemed to miss his island. "Day after tomorrow," he mumbled with a slight yawn.

Getting up from his seat on the porch, Atem turned and walked back into the kitchen. He tossed his empty ramen cup in the trash, the fork landing in the sink. Beneath it sat a couple other dishes waiting to be washed. _'I'll take care of them later,'_ he decided after eyeing the sink for a moment. Pulling off his shirt, he made his way through the bedroom to the bathroom.

When he'd first come here, the Ishtars had helped furnish the small house, which was complete with solar electricity and a desalination system to provide fresh running water. It felt good to take a cool shower after a long hot day, and to wash all the sand off. _'People who've grown up with these luxuries...like microwaves and showers... They take these modern marvels for granted,' _Atem mused as he stood under the spray of the showerhead. The water streamed over his body, flowing like countless infinitesimal rivers across his skin as it swept away sand and sweat. In his mind, he couldn't help comparing his life in the past to his life now. He found it difficult to believe people had managed without showers and running water, even though he had been among them. To be able to wash all the sand off at the end of the day meant he didn't have to put up with getting sand in the bed sheets. He had never enjoyed the feeling of sleeping in sandy, gritty sheets, but he eventually learned to tolerate it when he was a boy.

Knowing it was unwise to overwork the desalination system, Atem quickly finished with his shower. He shook excess water from his dripping hair before reaching for a towel. His hand grasped blindly at the air for a moment before he felt it. Fabric soft from frequent use soaked up moisture as he toweled off. Once his skin was dry and his hair only mildly damp, he stepped out of the shower and into the cool air. Carefully he folded his towel and hung it back up on a rack so he could use it again when it was dry. He put on his pajamas, an Egyptian _sendut_.

A burst of static noise drifting through the partly open bathroom door drew Atem's attention. Going out to the front room, he quickly located the source. The little TV in the corner was still showing the same weatherman from earlier. Through the distorted audio, it was apparent that he was tracking some sort of storm moving through the Pacific Ocean. Atem grabbed the remote and flipped the TV off. Even if he had wanted to know more about the storm, the channel had too much static to see the weather map clearly. Tossing the remote onto the couch, he strode over to the closed door by the bookshelf.

"_Sesh,_" he sighed as he stood before it. Emblazoned with an Egyptian symbol of protection, the Eye of Horus, the door opened silently at the slightest touch on the ankh-inscribed knob. Cool air slipped across Atem's bare feet as he proceeded down a narrow U-shaped staircase into a dark chamber under his house. Each step he descended carried the sensation of walking into another time as well as another place. The only light in the chamber were the last rays of the sun streaming through the narrow, ground level window on the west wall. The window on the east wall showed only a dark sky awaiting the first faint stars. Silhouetted near the middle of the floor was a cluster of tall objects, yet aside from that the room seemed empty.

Atem touched two objects on each side of the doorway, whispering "_Nebiu deser_" as he did so. He felt a small rustling movement, like something brushing past him, as he let his hands fall to his side. Two small torches flickered into glowing flame. Their sizzling warmth bathed the air with light. Atem blinked a few times as his eyes protested against the sudden brightness, though he already knew what was in the basement. The room they revealed looked so pristine, it seemed almost impossible that the stairs did not actually lead to the past. Only a trained eye would notice the subtle alterations that distinguished the room from one of its ancient counterparts nearly half a world away.

Hieroglyphs lined every inch the walls. Countless carved lines of stone stained with vivid colors depicted scenes that were once common inside of Egyptian temples thousands of years ago. The silhouetted objects near the middle of the room turned out to be seven pairs of pillars, lavishly engraved with hieratic text and other scenes. Lining a path from the door to the other end of the room, the scenes depicted on their surfaces held a far more personal meaning for Atem. Scenes of childhood gave way to carvings of a king in his mid to late teens. Ka seemed to dance around as a record of ancient battles. The carvings of old events gave way to scenes that were much more modern, ka gave way to cards during his search for memory. Written into the pillars was his own life and history; everything that he had endured up to the day he had moved to the island. At the far end of the room, a large figure of the right and left Eyes of Ra was etched into the wall. A small altar, gilded and inscribed with yet more hieroglyphs, stood beneath the carved eyes. The whole chamber contained the atmosphere and feel of an Egyptian temple in its glory days, all shrunk down to fit within the basement of a house on a tiny island.

Atem picked up a stick of incense from a small table by his side and held the tip in one of the flames. Blowing on it gently, he carried the smoking incense to the other side of the room, laid it on the altar, and knelt. He closed his eyes and in his native Egyptian tongue began to whisper softly to the night.

"_Seb iadeba ne ium waa sehetp. Di khensu dju ne shememiu mekhet dewaat heru. Wi nedjech nen nech, Tefnut kemt hertept ne mit hena igap._"

Once more, Atem felt that faint whisper of something brushing past him. The candle flames flickered as something stirred the smoke from the incense, swirling it until it resembled the shape of an ominous cloud. For a brief instant, a smoky figure seemed to flicker in the center of the storm like lightning. Atem's eyes remained closed as he continued to recite prayers both old and new. He was no priest, but he still felt an obligation to respect the traditions and beliefs of his people. By the time he finished whispering and opened his eyes, the incense had almost completely burned away. Quietly Atem got to his feet. The air around the altar was hazy with incense. After dipping his head in respect to the watching Eyes of Ra, he turned and walked to the stairs.

"_Akhem,_" he murmured before mounting the stairs. The torches petered out, leaving the basement hidden in darkness as Atem climbed upstairs to the main part of the house. "_Debet._" At the sound of his whisper, the door glided shut behind him, making no sound except for the click of the doorknob. Weariness swept through Atem's mind as he noticed moonlight flooding the front room. _'I don't recall leaving the front door open,' _he mused. With a yawn, he pushed that door closed to keep out some of the nocturnal insect life. One by one, he turned off all the lights in the house, and then trudged over to his bed. Sleep claimed him the moment his head hit the pillow.

_"I do not think I can keep blocking the door for very long." Rishid's voice seemed too quiet next to the muffled roar of the wind's fury. "Is everyone alright?"_

_"I think we're all in one piece," Jounouchi called back, looking around. He saw Yugi and Atem were still on the dueling platform, talking with Ishizu in low voices that he couldn't quite hear. Neither he nor anyone else noticed a soft glow coming from the eye in the stone overlooking the dueling area._

_"Yugi what happened to your arm?" Ishizu was asking._

_"The duel disk got really hot," Yugi replied, "Then it went crazy and blew to pieces." He took his uninjured hand away from his arm and winced. It wasn't a pretty sight. Shiny burns of different shades of red marred his skin where the duel disk had contacted flesh. Under the hue of the burns was the slight discoloration of fresh bruises. A couple gashes along his arm were oozing blood that dripped slowly onto the stone._

_"My duel disk did the same thing," Atem told him, "I barely managed to get it off in time." He looked over at Ishizu. "Is there anything we can use for a temporary bandage? I don't think we'll be finishing the duel, at least not today."_

_"Of course," Ishizu nodded. Bending down, she tore a strip of cloth from the bottom of her long skirt. "Yugi hold out your arm."_

_Yugi held his left arm out, trying not to watch as she wrapped the cloth around the wounds several times. He said nothing, but his breath escaped his clenched teeth. His eyes squeezed shut as he felt his arm throbbing in time with his pulse. The pain seemed to radiate up into his shoulder. It took all his self-control to keep from pushing Ishizu away._ **'**She's just trying to help,**'** _he told himself. A sharper throb of pain as Ishizu firmly knotted the ends of the cloth together made Yugi bite his lip, but that he couldn't stop a small whimper from escaping._

_"There," she sighed. "It would be better if we had some ointment or something, but that should help for now."_

_"Then let's add this to help keep the sand out," Atem said as he pulled off his jacket, now glad that it was intact. He gingerly wrapped the rest of Yugi's forearm in the jacket. Keeping his touch as light and gentle as possible, he carefully tied it in place with the sleeves._

_Even though they were now separate, Atem could tell Yugi was in a lot more pain than he was admitting. His own cheek and burns were throbbing, and he was doing his best to focus through the slight haze of pain. He did not want to imagine exactly how Yugi's arm was feeling, but he would trade places with Yugi in an instant if he could._

_"Thanks," Yugi mumbled as he got to his feet. His eyes were watery from the pain, though he hoped the others would attribute it to the stinging dust in the air._

_"Yugi!" Anzu gasped._

_"What happened to your arm!" exclaimed Honda._

_Before Yugi could answer, the earth beneath them buckled. A mix of low rumbling and human cries drowned out the wind as everyone struggled to remain standing. Only sheer force of will managed to keep Rishid standing at the door, shielding them from the wind that still raged, desperate to get in. A sound like a muffled gunshot echoed in the room, followed by a large crack that began to spread across the ceiling. Dirt and sand began to trickle down from the fissures in the rock._

_"This place could collapse at any moment!" Yugi's grandpa tried to sound calm. "Oof! I'm getting too old for this," he mumbled as tremors caused him to land on his back._

_"We've got to get out of here!" Malik yelled._

_"But the sandstorm hasn't stopped yet," Rishid called back._

_"It's a long way back to the boat," Malik acknowledged, "But from where we left the jeeps, the drive should mostly be a straight line. If we don't go too fast we should be able to get back despite the storm..."_

_Rishid opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by another voice._

_"Go!" Atem didn't raise his voice, but his tone got everyone's attention. "Malik's right, we have no idea how long that ceiling will stay standing." Beside him, Yugi knelt and began picking up the scattered cards from their decks._

_"Yeah, a sandstorm's survivable," Otogi added as he helped Yugi's grandpa to his feet. "A cave in? Not so much."_

_"Alright," Rishid agreed, "But we must not linger in here."_

_Rishid pulled his cloak away from the door. In an instant, sand and dust began whirling into the room, blinding and choking. The wind was momentarily muffled as Rishid rushed up the stairs, shielding his face. The storm's fury was back in full as soon as he was part way up, only to be suppressed again for brief moments as the others followed him. On the dueling platform, the wind whipped the scattered cards into a frenzy. Grabbing them became almost impossible for Yugi, even if he didn't have one arm burned and smothered in cloth._

_Atem winced as the sand grains scoured his cheek and the burn on his arm as he took a few steps toward the door. Then he realized Yugi wasn't coming. "YUGI!" he called over his shoulder, "We have to go!"_

_"What about our cards!" Another shudder of the earth made Yugi loose his balance. Putting out his good arm, he managed to break his fall but the wind tore the handful of cards he'd managed to catch from his grip. "No!"_

_Atem squinted, watching helplessly for a moment. They needed to get out of here, but Yugi had a point. Their cards were important too. _**'**Maybe...**'** _Thinking fast, he made a slight gesture with his hand, as if he was encouraging someone to come closer. At the same time, he whispered in Egyptian._

_"__Ahbsen! Ka hena heka!__" Atem's voice echoed slightly despite the storm. He felt a small sensation of energy rushing past him, fading as suddenly as it came. In a burst of cold air, the cards suddenly diverged from their wild dances in the wind. "__Dmedjesen__!" They flew together and formed two neatly stacked decks, dropping themselves into Yugi's hands._

_Yugi slipped the decks into his pockets. "What did-?"_

_"Later!" Atem grabbed Yugi's good arm and began pulling him towards the stairs as the room shook again. "Hurry!" Louder cracking sounds chased them out as rocks from the ceiling began to crash down._

_Outside, the sandstorm was even worse. Yugi could barely see more than a few inches in front of his face, and that was only when he tried to stop shielding his eyes long enough to look. He wouldn't even have been able to find Atem if they hadn't been holding onto each other._ **'**We shouldn't miss it,**'** _Yugi thought to himself. _**'**Even if we're walking blind, Rishid and Malik parked the jeeps in front of the shrine entrance. As long as we go straight we should run right into them.**'** _Atem's grip was still pulling him forward into the storm. _**'**Can Atem see where we're going?**'** _he wondered._

_"I can barely see anything," Atem called back to Yugi at that exact moment. "But the jeeps should be right in front of us, right?" He wondered why they hadn't seen or heard any sign of the others yet. Then something different caught his attention._

_"Yugi, do you hear that?"_

_They both stopped. All around them was the howl of the wind as it scoured them with sand. Yet faintly under the wind's cry, they could hear a low growling noise. Then the growl doubled in volume, as if there were suddenly two of the snarling creatures._

_"An engine!" Yugi exclaimed as the diesel growl rose and fell._

_"The jeeps!"_

_The noise increased sharply as the engines revved, then promptly began to fade away into the storm._

_"They're leaving without us... Run Yugi, RUN!" Atem raced blindly towards the fading sound of the engines with Yugi partly running, partly being dragged behind him._

_"Guys! Stop! You're leaving without us!" Yugi screamed into the storm. "STOOOOP!" The wind tore the words away from his lips, carrying them out into the desert. He stumbled, his arm slipping out of Atem's grasp. Reaching blindly, Yugi tried to grab for something that would stop his fall as he face planted into the sand. Just ahead of him he heard a soft exclamation of surprise and a thump as Atem landed in the sand. A muffled whimper escaped his own lips as his weight fell on his injured arm. Gingerly he moved his arm from underneath his torso. -_

_"Yugi that's my foot!" Atem's voice was almost inaudible over the wind._

_"Sorry," Yugi called, letting go of Atem's shoe. They both lay in the sand, neither speaking but both feeling something wasn't right. Around them echoed the lonely wail of the wind. Then they realized what was missing. The sound of the engines had disappeared. They were alone in the desert sands of Egypt._


	3. Chapter 3

The sun had already risen when Atem finally stirred. Yawning, he rubbed sleep from his eyes as he sat up and glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand by his bed. The clock's hands showed it was nearly a quarter after nine. Half asleep, he slid out of bed and stumbled to the small closet in the corner of the room. An untidy pile of clothes greeted him inside. A few pieces of clothes went flying past Atem's head as he dug for a clean shirt. Draping the shirt over one shoulder, he made his way into the kitchen and hit the light switch next to the counter. The light above flickered as he turned the sink's tap to cold and splashed water on his face. It barely caught his interest until it almost went out and then came back with a faint buzz.

Atem looked up at the still-flickering light, scrutinizing it. _'It's not the light bulb,'_ he decided after a few moments. He reached toward the sink and shut off the faucet. _'I feel like having waffles this morning,' _he decided as he grabbed a plate from the stack of clean ones. Going over to the deep freeze, he leaned in to grab the box near the bottom. got two frozen waffles and stuffed them in the toaster on the counter. The electricity flickered again as he pressed the lever. _'I'd better check the solar panels after breakfast. This place may have a backup battery for outages but it doesn't last more than a day at most...' _He grabbed a pencil tied to the calendar on the wall and drew a big _**X**_ through yesterday's date.

As he pulled his shirt over his bare chest, the waffles popped out of the toaster. Golden brown with a few burned spots, they filled the air with a tasty smell. Atem used a fork to pick them up. If there was one thing he had learned well, it was how easy it could be to suffer minor burns in a kitchen. As he picked up the syrup bottle, he noticed it was almost empty. _'Good thing someone's coming tomorrow.'_ He got himself a glass of juice and sat down at a small table by the wall.

Bright sunshine from a window fell upon the sink as he finished his breakfast, lighting up the dishes from yesterday still waiting to be cleaned. Sighing, Atem went to the sink and turned on the faucet with one hand while squirting soap over the plates and utensils with the other; he figured it was best to do it now rather than let them pile up. He stood and watched the water run over the dishes for a moment. Once the soap began to cover the sink with bubbles, he picked up a plate and started scrubbing and scraping it clean with his fingernails. Briefly, his thoughts flicked to the sponge he normally used for washing dishes. It had been nearly two weeks since he'd last seen it, and he had no idea where it had gone.

'_No matter which of the Ishtars comes with supplies tomorrow,'_ Atem mused as he wiped soapsuds off a plate, _'I should tell them to bring a new sponge with next month's supplies.'_ He continued to clean the dishes using soap and elbow grease, until the flickering lights once again caught his attention as he reached for the last fork.

"I better take care of that before the power goes out completely," Atem mumbled as he glanced up at the light fixture. "That means I've got to get onto the roof." He shut the sink's faucet off, and then turned walked back to his bedroom. He looked around at the clothes he'd tossed on the floor earlier; a pair of light jeans caught his eye. After picking them up, he pulled off his _sendut _and tossed it onto the bed. He stepped into the jeans, all the while thinking about the potential problems with the solar panels.

Atem was no trained electrician, and he knew that. He also knew that he had eyes and common sense. _'At the very least,' _he thought, '_I can look and see if any of the panels are broken; that shouldn't be too hard to notice. Or check if the wires have become loose or damaged. I just hope the problem is something I can fix on my own.' _that was a more serious matter. He went out to the front room and grabbed a wide-brimmed hat he kept hanging by the door to keep the sun out of his eyes. Then he slipped on a pair of flipflops lying on the floor near by. The humid air washed over him as he opened the front door. He walked into the sun and around to the southern side of the house where a thick palm tree stood growing close to the wall.

The palm tree's trunk curved gently, making it the perfect impromptu ladder to reach the roof. Atem wrapped his arms around it and began to haul himself up the trunk. He deftly shimmied his way up the tree; its trunk bent slightly under his weight as he got higher. When he was level with the flat roof of his house, he carefully eased himself to a kneeling position. The gap between the tree and the roof was about half a meter. Cautiously he rose and made a small, swift jump to the roof.

A burst of noise and shapes greeted Atem, startling him into almost falling off the roof. "Ah! Shoo! Get away!" he shouted at the feathery mass that seemed to dive-bomb his face. His hat offered little protection; it was quickly knocked off his head. Shielding his face with one arm, he waved his arm wildly in an attempt to scare it away. After a moment, it seemed to back off and he had a chance to see his attacker. Warily he lowered his arm from his face. Clustered in the center of the roof, a small flock of gulls stared back at Atem. Scattered around the flock were several nests in various stages of construction, and dried bird droppings were everywhere.

"Great," he mumbled. "They're right on top of the solar panels. At least that explains why the lights were flickering." The birds seemed to glare at him, shifting their wings restlessly. It was clear they didn't approve of Atem's presence on the roof. They had apparently decided that the solar panels made a perfect roosting spot.

'_I've got to get rid of this mess,' _Atem realized. "Sorry," he informed the birds, "But you can't make your nests here." He reached for the nearest of the unfinished nests, intending to throw it off the roof. A chorus of irate squawks was his only warning before an explosion of feathers obscured his vision. The flock took to the air to attack the would-be nest robber.

"GAH! Stupid birds!" Atem yelled as wings and beaks beat against him. A flurry of confusing motion and vociferous squawks filled the air. He tried in vain to bat them away, but for every feathery body he managed to knock aside two more seemed to take its place. A sharp burst of pain spread right beneath his eye; one of the gulls had managed jab its beak into his face.

"_Nehep_!" he exclaimed vehemently, covering his face with both arms. "Enough with these damn birds! _Ruiten_!" he cried out in frustration.

Squawks of surprise emanated from the gulls' beaks as the Egyptian magic seized them. They frantically beat their wings and struggled, but the incantation tossed them away like a paper lost in a strong wind. Reluctantly the flock gave up and flew off to search for a new nesting place. Atem sighed and sat for a moment on the edge of the roof.

"Good riddance," he mumbled. He gingerly felt the spot near his eye where he'd been pecked. A dull ache spread through his cheekbone as he touched it, but he didn't feel any blood. _'That's going to be a bruise but it'll heal,' _he concluded. Turning, he surveyed the roof around him. _'The nests aren't even finished…I'll have to clear them away and scrub the solar panels clean.'_

A low croak from somewhere to his left interrupted his thoughts. Turning to look, Atem saw a strange bird different from the gulls that had menaced him moments ago. This bird's golden eyes held a cold intelligence as it studied the former pharaoh. Another croak escaped its beak as it shook and ruffled iridescent, inky colored wings. It took a few moments before Atem recognized what it was.

"A raven...what's a raven doing in the middle of the ocean?" he wondered aloud. As if in response to his question, the raven croaked again. Spreading its wings, the raven croaked threateningly before launching itself from the roof. The bird circled him four times before it turned and headed towards the sea.

Atem watched the raven soaring away over the ocean. _'Very strange,'_ he mused. _'I'm fairly certain ravens aren't sea birds...what could it have been doing out here?' _The raven remained on his mind as he gathered the unfinished gull nests, throwing the material over the edge so that sunlight could reach the solar panels. When the nests were gone, he examined the other mess that the gulls had left.

_'I need a bucket of water to get these droppings off,' _he realized. He gazed at the palm tree that served as his ladder. _'Getting a bucket onto the roof by myself will be tricky at best.… Maybe I should wait until tomorrow when supplies come. An extra set of hands will make this easier.' _Atem felt satisfied with the cleanliness of the solar panels for now. Carefully making his way to the edge of the roof, he leapt down into the sand below.

Atem glanced back up over his shoulder at the spot where the raven had been. Something its presence made him uneasy about seeing it. _'Some people say that seeing a raven is an omen,'_ he thought. He noticed his fallen hat lying in the sand a meter away. _'Given why I came here in the first place, this could be a sign of something bad coming...or it could be nothing. It probably wouldn't hurt to be careful... Just in case.' _He picked up his hat and brushed sand off it, trying to shift his thoughts to more pleasant ideas as he walked back to the porch.

_"They're gone..." Yugi whispered. The wind carried his words into the empty desert. Even if he had been surrounded by people, it would be almost impossible for anyone else could hear him in the storm. He felt blind, unable to see anything except dust when he tried to look around. He was forced to squint, but even that didn't help his watery eyes see._

_Throbbing pain in his arm brought more tears to his eyes, making his vision even worse. The mournful howl of the winds smothered and filled him, as if everything that once existed was now gone. Panic made him reach within himself, for the place in his soul where his connection to the pharaoh used to be. Yet all he found was a raw, hollow wound that held no comfort for him. He barely noticed a tear carried away by a gust of wind. Yugi never felt more alone in his life._

_Something in the storm reached out and gripped Yugi's shoulder firmly. "Aibou, are you alright?" Atem had to lean close to Yugi's ear to make himself heard over the wind without screaming. "What happened?"_

_"I'm okay," Yugi called back as a feeling of relief flooded through him. "I think I tripped on something. I can't see where I'm walking with all this dust in the air!"_

_"It'll be nearly impossible to catch up with the others like this. We'd probably be better off if we wait it out."_

_"Is there someplace we can get out of the wind?" Yugi no longer was sure which way the entrance to the underground shrine was. Even if he had known, he was reluctant to go back to a place that was on the verge of collapse, if it wasn't already caved in._

_"We should be able to find SOMETHING around here." Atem pulled Yugi to his feet. _**'**Kul Elna WAS a village once...**'**___he thought to himself. _**'**There should be remains of some buildings or houses around here somewhere. The only problem is I can barely tell which way is up right now.**'**___Shielding his eyes, he tried to see something, anything through the dusty haze. "I think...over there."_

_"Over where?"_

_"This way!" Atem tugged on Yugi's arm to indicate the direction. Slowly he made his way forward. With one arm, he kept a hold of Yugi while he shielded his eyes with the other, hoping he was leading them towards shelter and not the open desert. Each step seemed to take forever. It felt as if the distance between where they stood and anything that might offer shelter had been stretched to infinity._

_Atem resolutely kept putting one foot in front of the other, trying not to let Yugi know about his uncertainty. Finally, he felt his shoulder brush something solid. Reaching out blindly, he felt the corner of a stone structure beneath his hand. "Found something!" he shouted at Yugi. "A wall, I think!" His eyes were watering badly now that he was no longer shielding his face. The cut on his cheek burned as if on fire, though he did his best to ignore it._

_"Let's try and find the side that blocks the most wind!"_

_"Right!" Guided only by touch, Atem inched along the wall. _**'**It would be great if we could find a corner, but I'll settle for anything that blocks the wind**'**___he thought as he trudged ahead. Any sound that may have warned him of what was coming was carried away by the wind. As he put his weight down on his next step, his foot suddenly plunged deep into the sand as the hidden roof of an old cellar gave way under him. He was falling. He couldn't see. Something heavy landed on his head. His last thought before he lost consciousness was that he should have been watching for sinkholes._

_Yugi followed Atem blindly into the storm, only the grip on his arm keeping him from becoming hopelessly lost. From ahead of him came a faint cry of surprise. He felt Atem's grip loosen as something pulled him forward and down. Yugi was too startled to keep his balance and found himself falling too. He felt sand all around him, then his head hit something hard as he landed on top of Atem, and he blacked out._

**'**Ow...**' **_The first thing Yugi became aware of was pain. A dull ache throbbing in time with his pulse, in his arm as well as a spot on his right temple, seemed to be what woke him. Then he became aware of sounds. Beside him came the rhythmic breathing of someone sleeping. Farther away was a bright, crackling noise that he couldn't identify. The distinct snapping of fabric blowing in a breeze briefly drowned out the crackling. He could feel warmth surrounding him. Wherever he was right now, it was hot. A pungent odor tickled his nose, bringing back a flood of unpleasant memories. A building. A desperate rush to rebuild the puzzle. Chains._

**'**Smoke!**' **_Yugi realized as he sat up in alarm. Bright sunlight assaulted his eyes, causing him to blink rapidly before he could see clearly. He was inside a simple tent, the faded dark cloth offering some shade from the blazing sun outside. The sandstorm was over._

_Yugi rubbed his eyes. They still felt gritty, like his eyeballs had been filled with dirt. Something white caught his attention as he moved his arm. Wiping his watery eyes again, he saw that his injured arm was no longer stuffed inside a wad of cloth. Someone had replaced it with a more proper bandage. _**'**Who could have done that?**'**___he wondered. A groan came from the spot beside him._

_"My head hurts," Atem mumbled as he sat up. He was rubbing a spot over the back of his skull. "Yugi? What happened? Where are we?"_

_Yugi shrugged. "We were here when I woke up." He gazed over to the tent entrance. "At least the storm is over."_

_"Storm... Now I remember! I fell into some sort of a sinkhole hidden in the sand."_

_"So that's what happened. I got pulled in too."_

_Atem sniffed and turned towards the tent opening. "What's that smell? Is that smoke?"_

_"I noticed it earlier...hey where are you going!"_

_Atem crawled out of the tent, squinting slightly against the harsh sunlight. A couple meters away, a ring of fist-sized rocks enclosed a small fire. A young man sat beside the fire, his back to the tent. The man had black hair tied back in a long, loose ponytail. His skin was tanned, but still several shades lighter than the deep bronze of a native Egyptian. He appeared to have no shirt on, though faded jeans covered what could be seen of his legs._

_"Who's that?" Yugi asked quietly as he crawled out of the tent._

_"Good question," Atem replied softly. "Let's find out." Quietly they approached the fire. Surprisingly any heat given off by the flames was unnoticeable under the desert sun._

_The man tilted his head slightly. "You're awake," he said without looking. His voice had a slight accent that neither Yugi nor Atem could place. "I thought you'd maybe be out of it still. Do you two knock heads like that often?"_

_"Huh?" Yugi glanced at Atem, who simply shrugged._

_"All that matters is you're awake now. Come, sit. If I was gonna hurt you, I already had my chance."_

_Hesitantly, Yugi and Atem made their way to the other side of the fire and sat down in the sand. Now they could see the man's face. A slight chill ran down Yugi's spine that had nothing to do with sweat. The man was indeed shirtless, and a good number of scars were visible across his torso. His eyes seemed to be the color of rust. Slashed across his left eye was another scar. Its shape reminded Yugi of a stylized, backwards checkmark. Something about the man's gaze was chilling, like the glare of a hunter surveying its prey._

_"Who are you?" Atem asked. He didn't look especially muscular or dangerous, yet Atem couldn't shake the feeling that this man wasn't as harmless as he claimed. The scars only contributed to the feeling._

_"I am...a traveler," the man replied, almost cautiously, as if debating with himself exactly what or how much to reveal. "I've been heading towards Cairo for some time now."_

_"Travel?" Yugi blinked. "Do you have a car or a jeep?"_

_The man scoffed. "I abandoned it when it broke down. Sand in the engine made the thing quit working. And what about you two? What's a couple of kids like you doing out in the middle of this god-forsaken place?"_

_Yugi bristled inwardly at being called a kid. _**'**Why do strangers always have to assume I'm a CHILD!**'**___He glanced over at Atem, wondering just how much of the truth it was safe to tell this guy._

_Atem glanced back with a slight frown, giving the message _**'**Some...but not ALL the details... At least not yet.**'**

_Yugi responded with a small nod before speaking. "We...were touring with a group of friends. We took a boat down the river, and then some jeeps took us to look at some ruins."_

_"Then that storm came up," Atem added. "And we got separated from the others. I think they might have left without us."_

_The man was silent for a moment. "They probably did leave you behind. No one else was there when I passed through." His piercing gaze focused on Yugi. "What else...were you doing there?"_

_Again, Yugi felt a chill, like a mouse caught under the glare of a cat. "Wh-what do you mean?"_

_"You don't get wounds like that just by being a tourist," the man stated calmly. "Burns, bruises, and cuts...all quite fresh..." He continued to stare Yugi down, as if he knew which of them would be easier to crack._

_Unable to take the man's eerie scrutiny any longer, Yugi shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. With a sigh, he mumbled something incomprehensible._

_"Aibou..." Atem's voice held a mix of caution and concern as he put a hand on Yugi's shoulder._

_"I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that." The man's controlled tone remained neutral, but somehow it still seemed demanding and infuriating at the same time. _

_Before Yugi could answer, Atem gently squeezed his shoulder. "We were...I suppose you could say we were attempting to fulfill a prophecy of sorts," he snapped at the man. He met the man's eyes with a glare of his own. "Satisfied?"_

_The man leaned back a little, almost triumphant. "Now THAT is a much more reasonable explanation for how you ended up lost AND burned in the ruins of an old ghost town. What exactly were you doing to complete this...prophecy?"_

_Atem bit his lip slightly, falling silent as realization dawned on him. They were supposed to have finished the duel. He was supposed to be in the afterlife right now. _**'**I shouldn't...I shouldn't even BE here to be having this conversation...**'**

_"I'm sorry, am I being too nosy?"_

_"...It's not that," Atem said after a while. "I...I was supposed to die...if the storm hadn't interrupted..."_

_"What!" The man's composure suddenly erupted. "You don't seem like the sort who'd have a death wish. What kind of messed up prophecy would you wanna kill yourself for!"_

_"Because the reason I'm here is to seal away a dark power, and when that task is done I have to...leave. To...kind of ensure the seal is never broken, and mostly because there's nothing left to keep me here..."_

_"I see..." The man blinked slowly, strangely calm again. "You're trying to be a one-shot hero and save the world from Armageddon."_

_"It's not like that at all!" Atem protested defensively._

_"Oh?" The man's eyebrows raised in surprise. "How so?"_

_"It's...I...that is..." He fell silent, unable to come up with the words to express his thoughts._

_"You don't want to do this? Or you're being forced into this?" The man asked, watching Atem closely. Even Yugi was staring at Atem. "Or maybe," the man continued, "You are convincing yourself this is for...the greater good, yet you want to live? Maybe you wish there was another way that didn't involve sacrifice?"_

_"I...I honestly don't know," Atem whispered, closing his eyes. Thoughts that had never troubled him before were racing through his mind. _**'**I was...so young...when I sealed myself... I died so young…especially by modern standards... And I was about to do it again...throw my life away... Why am I thinking like this? What's wrong with me? With the Millennium Items sealed...my reason for remaining here.… It's my FATE to die!**'**

_Yugi gently squeezed Atem's hand, trying to offer comfort and calm him. He had rarely seen the pharaoh so upset and confused._

_The man's voice interrupted Atem's thoughts. "If every prophecy ever made in all of history came to pass, the world would have been destroyed a hundred times over by now."_

_"What do you mean by that?" Yugi asked. Atem just blinked at the man._

_"Mankind has been making 'prophecies' pretty much from day one. Just as there have been prophecies about the salvation of the world from some terrible fate...there have also been prophecies about its destruction. If every prophecy that has ever been made ended up coming true, there would be nothing left for you to save. We wouldn't even be having this conversation. Because the world would have been destroyed by one of those ancient prophecies thousands of years ago. And since the world remains, it seems clear that some prophecies were never meant to come true. Sometimes you just have to tell destiny to go screw itself."_

_Atem sat in silence. _**'**Does that mean...I might not have to die?**'**_ a tiny part of him wondered._

_"Besides, if every prophecy DID come true, then all you did was buy the world a few more years."_

_"What...?"_

_"Yeah, ever heard of the Mayans? Kinda like the Ancient Egyptians but in South American jungles rather than Egyptian desert? Okay, bad analogy, but that's not my point. There's a fair few people who believe the world's gonna be destroyed when the Mayan calendar round comes to an end. And that'll be in a few years, when December 2012 rolls around. So even if you saved the world from ONE prophetic threat, all you did was buy more time until the next one comes along._

_"But enough with the melodramatic doom and gloom." The man's tone was suddenly far more casual. "Right now the main thing is for you boys to get back with your group. What you do after that...well that's really none of my business."_

_Yugi was startled by the sudden shift in discussion. "Well...uh if you're traveling on foot...maybe we could give you a lift wherever you need to go? When we finally catch up with them, that is..."_

_"I prefer traveling solo," he chuckled._

_"Are you sure...?" Atem asked, glad to think about something else for the moment. "The desert can be a very harsh place," he said knowingly._

_"It certainly can." The man dipped his head in agreement. "I'll be alright. This isn't the first time I've made a long journey on foot. I know how to hunt for food and water when I need it. I have all I need." He reached down and grabbed a bag lying by his feet that neither Yugi nor Atem had noticed before. From inside he pulled three sharpened sticks, a small pouch, and a Ziploc baggie full of what looked like raw meat. "Better cook this before it spoils in the heat, now that I think about it."_

_He opened the baggie and carefully threaded the three sizable hunks of meat onto the sticks. Untying the pouch, he sprinkled something that looked like salt over the fillets. Carefully he balanced the sticks in a triangle shape over the fire. It didn't take long before the meat began to sizzle and the air filled with the aroma of good food. Yugi tried not to drool while Atem's stomach complained._

_"Eat," the man said after a while. "It should be done by now."_

_Yugi hesitated. "But it's your food."_

_"I can always hunt around for more."_

_Yugi and Atem both eagerly picked up a stick and began to eat. The meat was somewhat plain and tasted gamey, but it proved very satisfying. Atem held the meat away after the first bite. "Hot!" he cried as he fanned his mouth._

_"How's your arm?" the man asked after eating in silence for a while._

_"It's alright," Yugi said as he looked down at the bandage. "Kinda sore._

_"What about you?" He shifted his gaze to Atem._

_"What about me?"_

_"You got burned too, although not as bad it seems. How's it doing?"_

_"Well...I've definitely been better," Atem looked down at his left forearm as he spoke. The burns in the skin looked shiny and a little raw. A clear fluid that wasn't sweat oozed slowly from a few of the blistered areas. It didn't hurt too badly, as long as he didn't put any pressure on it. After a moment he remembered his cheek, but quickly realized that the cut had scabbed over enough that it didn't burn anymore._

_The man frowned. "Might wanna put something on that."_

_"Such as what? We're not exactly within walking distance of a hospital."_

_The man didn't answer. He had started digging through his bag again, pulling out another pouch, a leather canteen, a shallow bowl, and a swath of white cloth. Blowing on the fire until the flames started to die, he set the bowl on the rocks around the fire. He picked up the canteen and poured a small amount of water into the bowl. Then he reached for the pouch and pulled out some dried leaves. "That needs to boil," he mumbled as he crumbled the leaves into the water._

_"What is that stuff?" Yugi asked._

_"Aloe. It's a plant that's been used to soothe burns since ancient times. I already put some on your burns while you were sleeping. I'm not a doctor by a long shot...but I do know a few tricks to take care of injuries temporarily."_

_Once the water began to boil, the man unfolded the cloth and dipped it into the bowl. The cloth turned dark as it absorbed the water-aloe mixture. He picked it up after a few more minutes and rung out the excess so it wasn't dripping wet. "Lemme see your arm," he said as he turned to Atem. "This will probably sting."_

_Hesitantly Atem held his burned arm toward the man. It did sting the moment the cloth touched the burn. A lot. He bit his lip to keep quiet as the man carefully wrapped the wet cloth around the burn, from the wrist all the way up to the elbow. He tried not to flinch when the man knotted the ends of the cloth together tightly._

_"Sorry, but it has to be tight or else sand'll get in," the man said cheerfully as he began to put away the bowl and the pouches._

_"Atem, I've been thinking about something," Yugi said quietly when he thought the man wasn't listening._

_"What is it?"_

_"How are we gonna get back to the others when we don't even know where we are?"_

_"Good point..."_

_"You said your friends had a river boat?" the man interrupted them._

_"Yeah."_

_The man stood and looked up towards the sun. "If the sun is there…," he mumbled. "Then that means..." He made motions as if he was pointing out things on the horizon that only he could see. Finally, he extended an arm and pointed in one direction. "Unless I've gotten my directions mixed up, there's a river that way. The river Nile, if I'm not mistaken. It's not too far, even if we can't see it from here...just a couple miles."_

_"And what if they're not at that particular spot on the river?" Atem asked. "How's that help us then?"_

_"If you reach the river you should be on the western bank. Since the Nile mostly runs north to south, if you follow it, and keep the river on your right, it will eventually bring you to Cairo. Once you're there-"_

_"We can call someone." Yugi finished._

_"Or if you're lucky, you'll run into your boat along the way. At the very least, there's fish in the river and plenty of water, so you shouldn't go hungry or thirsty._

_Yugi jumped to his feet and looked out towards the direction of the river. "That sounds like we could probably manage if we can just get to the river," he said as Atem got up to look. A small breeze played around them. Yugi turned to the man. "Thank- Wha?" He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again._

_Atem turned to see what was wrong. "He's gone!"_

_The man, the tent, the bag, and the fire had all vanished without a trace. The only evidence anyone else had ever been there was the scorched ring of rocks, the bandages covering their burns and a canteen of water lying at their feet._


	4. Chapter 4

Atem wiped the sheen of sweat from his forehead as he stepped into the shade of the porch. "Whew," he mumbled, "Going to be hot today." Having spent his childhood in the Egyptian desert, he was no stranger to heat. He didn't mind that the temperature rarely felt as if it dropped below twenty degrees; it was the humidity he couldn't tolerate. The sheer mugginess weighed down the air, making him feel like he was trapped within a suffocating blanket. He could easily escape the sun by retreating to the shade or going inside, but escaping the air wasn't as easy.

_'It's a shame the solar panels don't make enough electricity to power the house and an air conditioner,' _he mused as he opened a window, hoping to tempt in a breeze. '_But if I had an air conditioner, I'd have to give up either the fridge or the deep freeze. I need food more than climactic comfort, so that's not an option. I wonder if a small fan would take too much electricity….'_

Alluring waves danced invitingly, the water glistening in the sun as Atem looked out the window. A grin spread across his face as he stepped out of his flipflops and hung his hat by the door. "There is ONE good way to cool off," he mumbled. He turned away from the window and strode back to the pile of clothes in his bedroom closet. It didn't take long to find what he was looking for. He stripped out of everything he had on and tossed it on his bed, then pulled on slightly faded purple swim trunks. Already he felt more comfortable as he walked, shirtless, to the front door. Even in cooler clothes, the humidity still had him sweating as soon as he stepped off the porch.

The sand was hot beneath his bare feet, but Atem scarcely noticed. For him, walking on scorched sand was just one more thing he had learned to tolerate as a child. He made his way down to the shoreline. Waves swept back and forth over damp sand, washing away the sun's heat. The cool sand felt good between his toes as he waded into the shallowest water. As the next wave broke and splashed his knees, he recalled a handful of times during his childhood when he'd played in the crisp waters of the Nile. He hadn't been allowed to do that often, due to crocodiles and other dangers that hid in the river, but sometimes on the hottest days of the Egyptian summer, he had snuck out to go wading in the Nile. Now he was no longer a child. No one could scold him for wanting to go for a swim, and instead of a river, he had an entire ocean to dive into.

Atem took a deep breath as he leaned into another wave. He had waded in far enough that the waves splashed over his waist. Arms outstretched, he closed his eyes and flung himself into the next wave that came towards him. The water swirled around him, cool and refreshing compared to the stifling air. He turned around until a red haze filtering through his closed eyelids told him the sun was overhead. Kicking hard, he let out the breath he'd been holding with a gasp as he broke the surface. Weighed down by the saltwater, Atem's wet hair plastered itself to his face. He shook his head to clear it from his eyes as he tread water, noticing he was about a meter and a half from the shore. Although it was clear enough for him to see the bottom, he didn't have to swim out very far before the water depth was over his head.

Atem quickly sucked in a breath as another wave submerged his head. With all the free time on his hands, he'd managed to teach himself to swim rather well since he moved to the island. Until he first dived into the ocean, he wouldn't have believed anything could make his eyes burn worse than a grain of sand. The salty waters had proved him wrong. Over the months, he'd managed to build a slight tolerance to it, and now he could squint underwater for as long as it took him to count to thirty.

As he surfaced again and gulped down air, a flashing swirl of silvery yellow rushed past. _'I don't think I've seen that type of fish before,' _Atem thought as he watched the school race towards the southern end of the island. _'I bet I know where they're going though.' _Kicking out against the water, he propelled himself after the school. As he approached the southernmost tip of the island, the sea floor gave way to a forest of rocks, sponges, and corals of all shapes and colors. Countless varieties of fish, including the shoal that he'd followed, flitted about the small reef. Some were feeding, others resting, and many were doing activities that Atem couldn't begin to guess at. An anemone pulled in its tendrils as he swam past, startled by his shadow. Some fish scattered, while others swarmed around him in curiosity.

Atem swam over to one of the taller rocks and let himself sink into a sitting position. The water lapped at his chin and waves could easily cover his head, but from here he had a good view of the reef. His sudden movement scared some of the fish into hiding. Calmly he held still and waited. Soon tiny fish, no more than silver darts in the light, felt emboldened enough to swim closer. A sea krait drifted lazily past his stomach. He tried not to move as a blue fish nibbled his toes.

_'I could sit here for hours on end,' _he mused, _'And never get tired of watching. The only thing that would make this better is if I had goggles…or a snorkel…or both.'_ Atem's eyes tracked a sea turtle as it glided over the reef, ducking its head now and then to feed. A sense of peace washed over him as he shut his eyes. He didn't notice the flashes of scales beneath the water as the fish once again scattered to various nooks and crannies in the reef.

Atem sputtered as a splash of water hit him in the face. He blinked in surprise as the ocean around him filled with a series of clicks and squeaks. Something nudged him from behind. A fin sliced through the water beside him while another darted in front of him. One of the creatures leapt from the water giving him a clear view of a sleek grey body. Warm dark eyes and a narrow snout grinned at him as it slipped back beneath the water. This was the first time he'd seen a pod of dolphins up close.

Atem found himself laughing as the pod pushed him around. He couldn't help it. Their calls whistled through both air and water, a sound of boisterous mirth. He tried to count how many there were in the group, but it was hard to keep track of their constantly moving shapes. After a few attempts, he felt sure there were about sixteen large dolphins in the pod, along with two or three that looked small enough to be babies.

Unlike the shy fish of the reef, the dolphins approached him with bold curiosity. One would squeak at him, nudge him, click some more, and then dart off to click and whistle at its friends, while another dolphin started investigating him from behind. Slowly, Atem reached toward the nearest one. The dolphin squeaked and bumped its head against his hand, opening its snout in a toothy grin.

The breeze across Atem's face suddenly seemed chilly despite the evening sun. He stood motionless as his gaze turned to the northwest. The dolphin's skin had reminded him of a wet rubber toy. Toys made him think of games, and games always brought his thoughts to Yugi. A sense of loneliness wrapped around him as he stared past the island. The ocean beyond seemed to stretch forever to the horizon, obscuring the rest of the world with vast distance. Atem wasn't sure how long he spent gazing into the distance when a bump at his side drew his attention back to his current surroundings. The dolphin he'd been petting clicked at him. It turned its head to scrutinize him with dark, intelligent eyes.

"There is a very dear friend of mine who lives very far away," Atem softly told the dolphin as he patted its head. "I haven't seen him in a long time. I miss him." He watched in silence for a moment as some of the other dolphins snatched fish from the reef. "Bad things...seem to happen when I'm around. As if my presence is a magnet for dark and evil forces. It's better that I stay here alone than risk the unnecessary suffering of others."

Glancing back to the northwest, Atem was surprised to see the red and purple hues of twilight beginning to fill in the sky. _'Guess I've been out here longer than I thought.' _He turned to the north and swam back along the shore toward his house. As he swam, the dolphin followed him, swimming loops around him and racing ahead and back to him like an aquatic puppy.

When he reached chest deep water, Atem let his feet sink to the bottom. He hadn't realized how tired his muscles were, but he felt it now that his legs had to support his weight again. A slight twinge made him wince. It felt like he was probably going to get a cramp in his left calf sometime tonight or tomorrow. A squeak from the water made him turn around. The dolphin that followed him chirped again. It swished its tail and tilted its head as if confused by Atem's actions.

"Sorry, but I can't stay in the water all night like you," Atem told the dolphin. "My dinner and my home are on land. Go on and go back to your family." He gave the dolphin one last pat before turning his back on the water and wading to shore.

Sand clung to his wet feet and ankles as Atem trudged up to his front door. He frowned slightly at the puddles of saltwater forming around his feet. _'That's the problem with going barefoot, it's too easy to track stuff inside. And that just means a mess that needs cleaning later.' _He snapped his fingers and whispered, "_Suab rediui."_ The excess water dripping off him suddenly gathered and ran down his back. It swirled gently at his feet, washing away the sand, and then trickled off the edge of the porch back towards the ocean.

"That's better," he sighed to himself as he ran a hand through his hair. Now that it was dryer, his hair was starting to stick up again. He knew it was best to rinse the salt out before it dried completely, but he decided that could wait until after dinner.

The clock on the wall showed a little past 8:30 as Atem reclined on the sofa with another cup of ramen. "Wonder if I can find anything to watch," he mumbled. He blew on the hot noodles as he picked up the remote for the TV. The TV set was an older model, sporting rabbit ear antennae, but it could get a decent picture. At least it could when it could pick up a signal. There was no guarantee of what programs it would pick up on any given day, and the quirky thing never seemed to get the same channel for two days in a row. Even the clarity was as unpredictable as the wind.

Atem flipped through five stations with various levels of distortion. Finally, he came to some sort of news program that had both intelligible audio and a picture with minimal distortion. _'Better than anything else I'll probably find tonight,'_ he mused. On the TV, the newscaster's last few words concluded a story and the program cut away to a commercial break.

The news station's logo flashed across the screen, and a sputtering noise drowned out the cat food jingle that began to play. Atem quickly reached for the glass of water he had sitting on the nearby table. He managed to swallow the noodles he was choking on after a few gulps, then stared at the TV in disbelief. _'Domino City Local News! Impossible! This thing NEVER picks up channels from that far away!' _He watched in fascination as some of the commercials advertised places he remembered well. _'It's been so long...' _he mused as the news logo flashed across the screen again.

The newscaster launched into a story about business dealings at Kaiba Corp that Atem had no interest in. He frowned when she played a clip of Seto Kaiba at a press conference. "There's one person I'm certainly not pining for," he muttered. Kaiba's voice droned on about his company being strong despite some recent economic troubles that Atem knew nothing about. _'No matter how connected he may be to my cousin, Kaiba's attitude just makes him so difficult to deal with….' _Growing tired of the news, Atem picked up the remote as the newscaster moved on to her next story. Something she said caught his attention, and instead of pressing the channel up button, he hit the volume instead.

"...Fire in the college's third floor chemistry lab," she was saying. "Students and teachers were forced to evacuate the building due to the thick clouds of potentially toxic smoke. A few of the students were seen falling out of the windows when emergency responders arrived on the scene." The TV cut away from the newscaster to footage of the incident.

The camera was grainy, possibly taken from a cell phone, as it panned across a school building that had fire and sickly yellow and black smoke billowing from some of the windows. Maybe the smoke just looked strange because of some of the static on the screen. The wail of sirens came in as the first fire trucks arrived and began setting up hoses and ladders. A voice screamed somewhere off-screen, and the camera quickly turned towards the crowd of frightened students. Then it swung in the direction some of them were pointing, the burning windows. A small figure was just outside the window, its arms crossed over its face to shield itself as it fell.

Atem watched the screen as two larger figures fell out of the window after the first one, flames filling the window behind them. _'No,' _he realized, _'Not falling...they're jumping!' _ The camera followed their path, and Atem heard himself gasp as his stomach clenched violently and painfully. The flashing lights on the fire trucks briefly lit up the smallest figure as it fell. He shut the TV off, feeling as if he was going to be sick as a cold chill spread through him. He would recognize that hair color anywhere.

"Yugi…." he whispered in shock to the now silent TV.

A cold shower failed to erase the news footage from his mind. "_Makat Kemt ati menk, makat khenhemseku_," he sighed. _'I need to calm my nerves.'_ Atem took a shaky breath and opened the door to the basement. The scents of stone and faint smoke caressed him in a tender embrace as he descended into his little piece of the past. The comforts of ancient Egypt surrounding Atem soothed him enough that his hands were steady when he lit the torches with magic.

"_Nebiu deser._" Warm light flickered into existence, burning away the dark gloom in the air. He picked up two sticks of incense from the small pile. Tonight he had two favors in mind. Using the torches, he lit the incense one at a time. Holding them across his chest in the traditional way, he carried the smoldering offering to the altar. Keeping the incense crossed, he laid it down and knelt amidst the smoke.

"_Naunet nekheta hena nerimuta, Hestesa ne medjui aum,_" he whispered, "_Wi nedjech nech di warkhet dju duaat nu na neti wefapa chen mitu._" Smoke swirled around Atem as one of the incense burned brighter. It swept over the altar like a mighty wave from the depths of the ocean. Atem thought he could sense vague shapes flickering in and out of existence before they had definite form, but he kept his eyes closed.

A note of sorrow crept into his voice as he continued to whisper. "_Wi nedjek nen hesu, Shed Necher ne makat hena kari._" The smoky air rippled as the second incense burned more intensely. Atem felt as if a crocodile had crawled out of the Nile to watch him. He kept murmuring uninterrupted. "_Me pah ren Horus, meneh nef makat. Su khenhems meriui hena su khet nebt nei._" When he finished speaking, the smoke and the figures within vanished. Ash now lay where the incense had been. Atem stood as the torches sputtered out. As he turned around to head upstairs to his bed, the news footage played once more in his mind. Silent, glimmering tears finally spilled over and rolled down his cheek.

_"How did he disappear like that?" Yugi wondered aloud as they stood beneath the bright Egyptian sun. "Or did we...just imagine that guy?"_

_"He was definitely here," Atem replied as he glanced down at the drying bandage on his arm. Picking up the canteen, he turned back to the direction the man had said they would find the river. "We should probably get moving. The longer we're out here with limited water, the worse off we'll be. This place is just as dry as it was back in my time."_

_Yugi nodded, following as Atem started walking in the direction of the river. "This heat's pretty brutal," he remarked as he wiped sweat out of his eyes._

_Atem nodded. "…Yet another thing that hasn't changed."_

_Together, Yugi and Atem trekked steadily across the sand dunes. Silently they had agreed to drink as little and as infrequently as possible from their finite water supply. Their parched mouths and the oppressive heat discouraged conversation, so they spoke only when necessary. Dunes in the distance shimmered in the hazy air, sometimes even seemed to gleam with moisture, but when they got closer they found only dry sand._

_Every step was double the effort that it should have been. The sand gave way beneath their feet ever so slightly, gently holding on until they pulled free. It also filled their shoes, forcing them to travel with a feeling of grit between their toes. The sheer vastness of the desert also messed with their perception of size. Sand dunes that looked tiny in the distance seemed to loom over them once they got closer._

**'**How far have we come?**' **_Yugi found himself wondering as they climbed up yet another dune. It felt like hours since he'd lost track of how many times they had gone up and down the sand. _**'**How do we even know how much farther we have to go?**'**_Some time ago, the heat had driven him to remove his jacket and leave it behind. While it had helped him feel cooler, Yugi was well aware of the sun's rays searing his arms, cheeks, and the back of his neck. He was sure he would end up with a nasty sunburn._

_Sweat trickled down Yugi's skin as he panted from a combination of exertion and the heat surrounding him, causing his shirt to stick to his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment as he scaled a dune. The shimmering heat haze was making him a little dizzy. The sand beneath Yugi's feet suddenly gave way, and a sudden lurching sensation in his stomach was his only warning as he slipped. His eyes snapped open. He scrambled to find a hold as he began sliding back down the dune, but his hands could find nothing to grasp. A warm hand seized his good arm, stopping his fall._

_"Are you alright?" asked Atem's voice from overhead._

_"Yeah," Yugi replied as he scrambled back up, using Atem's arm for support. "It's just this stupid heat. But you don't seem to mind at all. How do you stand it?"_

_Atem shrugged and offered Yugi the canteen. He was sweating just as much as Yugi, yet somehow he didn't find it as disorienting. "I did grow up in it. Guess I'm just used to it." Shielding his eyes as he looked out over the horizon in search of some sign of the Nile, Atem briefly noticed his unbandaged arm looked a few shades darker. It seemed the desert sun was swiftly bringing out his natural Egyptian tan._

_"If I remember right, there tend to be fewer large sand dunes near the river, so it shouldn't be this bad the whole way..." Atem let himself slide down the other side of the dune. "And it will be cooler as the sun goes down," he called back._

_"That's good to know," Yugi mumbled. He gently shook the canteen. Water sloshed around inside, the echoing sounding suggesting that the canteen was about half full. He let himself have no more than two small mouthfuls before screwing the cap back on. His tongue and throat craved more, even though the water had grown warm in the sun. _**'**No,**'** _he told himself as he hung the canteen over his shoulder. _**'**I can't drink it all, we have to share and make it last until we reach the river.**'**_ Feeling a little better, he slid down the dune to where Atem was waiting for him._

_The sun was dipping ever closer to the western horizon when Atem finally reached the top of the tallest dune yet. He glanced behind him as he panted to catch his breath. The distance they had traveled was starting to wear him out; he wasn't sure how much farther he could go before his legs gave out. Looking down the dune, he saw that Yugi was just a couple meters below him._

"_Throw me the canteen," he called down to Yugi. Yugi obliged, and Atem caught the shoulder strap before the canteen could fall to the bottom of the dune. Quickly he took a small sip, and then hung it over his shoulder. Something in the distance caught his eye as he looked ahead again, prompting him to rub his eyes to ensure it wasn't a mirage._

_"I see it!" he cried excitedly._

_"What?"_

_"The river!"_

_"Where!" The sand beside him slipped a little as Yugi scampered the remaining distance to the top._

_"There!" Atem pointed to the expanse of land before them. Smaller ripples of sand replaced the giant dunes they had climbed all day. The sand gradually flattened out into a carpet of velvety green. A narrow ribbon of water shone like molten gold as it reflected the evening sun, bisecting the verdant canvas as it flowed parallel to the horizon._

_"We're almost there!" Yugi felt a broad smile spread across his sunburned face. He stared at the river, imagining all the plentiful, cool water that had to be flowing in it. After so long in the heat it was the best daydream he'd had in his life. The only thing that would be better would be the real thing. Just the sight of the river so close sent a feeling of renewed strength and hope swept through Yugi's tired body. He couldn't wait to get there._

_"Race ya!" he laughed at Atem as he took off sliding and rolling down the dune._

_"Aibou!" Atem chortled, "It's not a fair race if you get a head start!" He quickly followed Yugi, feeling every bit as excited that they were so close._

_The distance to the riverbank proved to be much farther than it looked. They finally reached it just as the setting sun was touching the western horizon. _**'**I can't believe we ran that whole way,**'** _Yugi thought as they collapsed together, sweat dripping off their bodies. _**'**It must have been at least half a kilometer.**'**_ Breathless, they lay side by side in the grass as a bird swooped low over the river. Finally they could rest their weary bodies._

_When his ragged panting had calmed to more normal breathing, Atem raised himself to a sitting position. His legs felt too tired to stand, so he crawled to the river and scooped up handfuls of water to slake his thirst. Water never tasted sweeter or crisper, in his opinion, than it did after spending a day without any under the Egyptian sun._

**'**Some things never change,**' **_Atem mused as he surveyed the river valley. Yugi joined him at the water's edge, splashing water on his sunburned face before drinking. After a few moments, Atem stripped his shirt off. It felt cooler that way, and he wondered why he didn't take it off sooner. He dipped his shirt into the river. When the fabric was completely soaked, he pulled it out and draped it over his shoulders, wringing it so the cool water ran down his chest and back._

_"That looks refreshing," Yugi observed. He wasted no time using his own shirt to copy Atem's actions. A sigh escaped Yugi's lips when he felt the cool water on his skin. "That feels so good."_

_Atem studied their surroundings again. "That strange man was right," he said softly._

_Yugi blinked, an unspoken question reflected in his eyes._

_"This is definitely __hap wer__," Atem answered._

_"__Ho... hap were__?" Yugi struggled to wrap his tongue around the foreign words._

_"It means 'great Nile'. It's what the river was called back during my time," Atem explained. "In fact…if I'm recognizing some of these land marks correctly…I think I might know where we are."_

"_Really?"_

"_Yes. The sun is setting in the direction we came, so that's west. And to the other side of __hap wer __is the east." Atem pointed in the direction the river was flowing. "So that's north, towards __re hap __and Cairo." He turned to the south and traced the river's curves in midair. "And a little ways to the south of here…used to be a town in my time. I don't think it's there anymore though."_

"_Well at least we know where Cairo is." Yugi shook his head. When he had been in the world of Atem's memories, the hieroglyphics of the Egyptian language had no meaning when he looked at them, yet he'd been able to understand the Pharaoh's words as easily as if they were conversing in Japanese._

'Why can't I understand him now,**' **_Yugi wondered. _**'**Why could I understand him then? Did it have something to do with our link…? Or was it because the spirit in Bakura's Millennium Ring turned the world of memory into a Shadow Game…?**'**_ He didn't know for sure. All he did know was that now, when Atem slipped into his native tongue, the words rang smoothly and fluidly through the air. Yet to his ears, it sounded like meaningless, elegant gibberish._

"_You look troubled Aibou, are you alright?"_

_"I'm fine. Just…Egyptian kind of confuses me," Yugi smiled reassuringly. "Oh, that reminds me." Yugi dug in his pockets and pulled out their dueling decks. Aside from being stuffed with sand, the cards seemed to be fine. "How'd you manage to make our cards gather up like that? You said some funny stuff in Egyptian then, too, didn't you?"_

_Atem nodded. "The power of the Millennium Items…is just one kind of magic. There were other kinds before the Items were made, and those other kinds didn't just disappear because of the Items. Although to be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pull it off."_

_"Lucky for us that you did." He handed one of the decks to Atem. "Here, this is yours."_

_"Thanks."_

_Yugi was silent for a few moments before he spoke again. "...I'm sunburned to a crisp, aren't I?" he asked. "Be honest." He knew he was burned; he could see his arms were red and felt heat radiating from his cheeks, almost like a miniature sun. What he wanted to know was how bad it was._

_"Well...you are pretty red... Pretty much anywhere you've got skin exposed except your chest...yeah." Atem glanced at his unbandaged arm, unsure how his skin had taken on a rich bronze color instead of burning. He decided not to think about it too much. Certainly he didn't envy the color the sun had painted on Yugi's skin._

_"I knew it. I got fried and you just tanned. You're lucky."_

"_Honestly your face makes me think of a cherry rather than something fried." Atem tried not to laugh._

"_Very funny." Yugi felt a pinch in his abdomen as his stomach grumbled audibly. "I wouldn't mind cherries OR something fried right now though."_

_Atem nodded, trying not to figure out how long it had been since they last ate. "There's always been fish in the river," he remarked, trying to think of something else._

"_We have to catch them though, don't we?" Yugi asked as they both stared into the water._

"_Yeah."_

"…_With what?"_

"_Our hands?" Atem felt too fatigued to try thinking of any better fishing methods._

_Yugi sighed as he collapsed, lying on his back in the grass. "I'm too tired to catch fish," he groaned. "My legs hurt."_

_Atem flopped back and lay beside him. "Ugh, same here. Let's wait until morning; the river isn't going to disappear overnight."_

_They lay together in silence, feeling the aches in their bodies. Neither of them wanted to move unless it was necessary. Above them, the sky's colors faded from a bluish mauve hue in the west, to violet, to inky black in the distant east. Shadows on the ground around them grew longer and darker as the first faint stars appeared overhead. All along the river, a whispering melody from nocturnal animals began to drift through the air._

_"How far do you think we are from Cairo?" Yugi asked suddenly. _

_"I'm not sure…if we are where I think we are, then we've got a long walk ahead of us…."_

_Silence once again surrounded them as moonshine replaced the vanished daylight. In the absence of the sun's blazing glare, the air was cooling quickly around them. Yugi found himself shivering as a cool breeze blew past. The night seemed abnormally cold to him after being in the sun for most of the day. Through the darkness, Yugi's ears picked up the sound of something large sliding into the water._

_"Hey, Atem?"_

_"Hm?"_

_"What kinds of animals live along the Nile? Anything we should watch out for?"_

_Atem didn't answer right away. "Well," he finally said, "The river has changed in the last three thousand years, so I'm not sure what lives around here now…but there were lots of creatures that could be found in this area in my time. The river itself has fish and birds, but hippos and crocodiles are the biggest dangers. And in the more remote parts of the river valley sometimes there were lions. Or at least rumors of lions being seen."_

"_Anything else?" Yugi tried to keep his mind from being carried away by ideas about the noise he'd heard._

"_Oh yeah. Snakes. You never know where you'll run into snakes, both poisonous and non-poisonous. Although most of the dangerous animals tend to avoid large groups of people, like villages and towns."_

_"So out in the open was where it was dangerous," Yugi said quietly as he looked into the dusky night surrounding them. _**'**In other words, where we are right now.**'** _A shiver ran through him, and he wasn't sure if it was from the night air or his imagination running wild. His sunburned face seemed pale in the moonlight as he quietly berated himself for being afraid of the dark._

_A gentle breeze wove its way around Yugi. He shivered again, surprised by just how cool the desert could be. As recently as a week ago, he'd assumed deserts were hot all the time, even at night. _**'**Fire is warm…and most animals don't like to go near a fire….**'** _The notion of a campfire seemed appealing to him as he lay in the dark. _**'**But we haven't even got anything to burn….**'**_ He ran his hands over the ground as his thoughts wandered. After a few moments, he realized the ground was littered with dead leaves, small twigs, and dry grass. Wearily he stood up despite the burning protest in his leg muscles._

_"Something wrong?" Atem asked as Yugi bent over and began gathering the dry material._

_"I was just thinking, maybe we should get a fire going."_

_"That's not a bad idea." Atem sat up and began clearing a wide patch of grass. He saved the grass to use for tinder as he bared a spot for the fire. It was tricky with only the wan light from the moon and stars, but together they managed to clear about a meter of ground._

_Yugi kneeled in the middle and piled a small mound of dried leaves in the middle. Then he stood the smallest twigs in a cone shape around the leaves, and surrounded it all with dry grass. He kept the larger sticks set aside, intending to add them once the fire was lit. While Yugi was doing this, Atem gathered more fuel to keep the fire going. He sensed more than heard Yugi's quiet mutterings of frustration._

_"Aibou?" he whispered gently as he turned to see what was the cause._

_"I can't get this effing thing to light!" Yugi grumbled, frustration and fatigue overwhelming his usually pleasant demeanor. He held the two largest sticks they'd found in his hands. Despite rubbing them together furiously, he didn't even have a whiff of smoke to show for his efforts. "I KNOW we should be able to get a fire going this way! It's in nearly every stupid survival show on TV! What the hell am I doing wrong?"_

_Atem watched in silence as Yugi struggled. An idea was forming in his head, but he wasn't certain if it would work.__He put a hand on Yugi's shoulder to get his attention. "Let me try something." Yugi gladly handed over the sticks he'd been abusing and watched. Atem held the sticks crossed in an X shape, resting the point where they touched on top of the kindling. For a moment he held still, hoping he wouldn't mess up._

_"__Asebiu__," he murmured. A burst of heat radiated down his arms as a fiery sparks flickered into existence where the sticks touched. "There," he smiled as he dropped the sticks._

_"Let me guess," Yugi said as he watched the sparks grow into flames that licked eagerly at the kindling. "More Egyptian magic?"_

_"Yeah, I couldn't think of anything else to try." Sparks flew up into the air as Atem added some dried grass and twigs to the fire._

_"It worked better than my method, that's for sure. That's better than matches."_

_"Well there's no law that bans magic from being used for practical purposes." Atem stretched and lay down, tucking the canteen under his head for a pillow. "We should get some sleep. We've got to keep going tomorrow, and it's a long walk to Cairo."_

_"Great, another long hike," Yugi yawned as he felt his leg muscles throb._

"_At least the river has water and fish."_

_Yugi's eyelids grew heavy. With the fire's heat taking the edge off the coolness of the night, fatigue was swiftly clouding his mind. Yawning again, he curled up next to Atem and they both fell asleep quickly._

_Yugi gradually became aware of bright, red-tinted sunlight streaming through his closed eyelids. Groaning slightly, he turned his head and squeezed his eyes shut tighter, trying to block it out._ **'**Who left the bedroom curtains open?**'**_he wondered sleepily. He didn't want to get up yet. His legs were sore and cramped._

_In response to his movement, someone nearby mumbled in their sleep. Yugi felt an arm slip around him and pull him a little closer to a warm body. He snuggled against the other person, feeling safe in the embrace. A twinge of mild annoyance flickered through Yugi's mind as a sound reached his ears. He couldn't identify it, but it sounded like distant voices calling his name._

_A sudden cacophonous sound blasted through the air, causing Yugi's eyes to fly open. "I'M AWAKE!" Yugi screamed as he leapt up, scattering the ashes of the fire. His heart pounded like it was about to jump out of his chest. Every muscle in his legs quivered from adrenalin, ready to ignore the fatigue and run from the source of the noise._

_Yugi heard Atem exclaim vehemently in Egyptian, something that sounded roughly like "__San chess mess!__" He was on his feet beside Yugi, looking around wild-eyed for the source of the racket. More voices drew his attention._

_"Yugi! Hey look! Pharaoh over here! Look here guys!" The voices came from the river. Atem blinked and squinted while Yugi rubbed his eyes. The morning sun reflecting off the water left them momentarily blinded. Once their eyes adjusted, they saw the Ishtars' boat sitting in the water before them. Jounouchi and Anzu stood waving on the deck as the boat's horn blared again._

_"I guess we won't be walking all the way to Cairo," Yugi grinned as he waved back._

_"We found 'em!" Jounouchi yelled as he turned and ran inside the boat. "It's them! We found 'em!"_

_"Race ya," Yugi teased, still riding his adrenalin buzz._

_Atem laughed. Despite his protesting muscles, he managed to find the energy to jog after Yugi to the rope ladder that Anzu lowered from the side of the boat._


	5. Chapter 5

The morning sun streamed through an eastern window, gently warming all it touched. Atem yawned, the bright glow through his eyelids rousing his mind to consciousness. He blinked sleepily as he sat up in bed. _'Sun usually hasn't risen that much...did I sleep in?' _Suppressing another yawn, he looked over at the clock. _'Ten thirty? I guess I did oversleep a bit.' _He slid out of bed, dragging half of the sheets with him. Out of habit more than conscious thought, he tossed it haphazardly back onto the bed before blinking around at his room. Clothes from yesterday's closet raid still lay strewn about the floor.

"_Seneta wenkhi_," Atem mumbled wearily, causing the clothes to reverse their flight path back into the closet. Normally he'd pick them up by hand, but this morning he felt too tired to bother. _'Wish I'd been able to get some decent sleep last night….' _Nightmares had kept him tossing and turning all night long. As he trudged into the kitchen, vague images of one lingered in his mind. The details were fleeting, something about a cage and a faceless man, sinister laughter and Yugi devoured alive in a pit filled with ravenous lions made of flame. Atem quickly banished the dream fragments from his mind, blaming the news clip from last night as the cause.

Atem stared at the dwindling contents of his refrigerator as he tried to decide on breakfast. _'Might as well have bacon with eggs.' _He grabbed the last two eggs from the carton, and then reached for the last of the bacon. Turning to the counter, he set his food down to free his hands and then took a clean bowl and plate from the cabinets. _'I swear that thing hates me,' _Atem reflected bitterly as he cast a slight glare at the stove.

The electric stove in his kitchen had become the one thing that Atem avoided at all costs. Every time he tried to use the thing, somehow there was always something that seemed to go wrong. His burned eyebrow may have grown back, but the incident remained fresh in his mind. Since then he'd come up with a myriad of ways to use the microwave to replace the need of the stove.

Atem placed the bacon on the plate and covered it with a paper towel. Picking up the eggs, he cracked them into the bowl one after the other. He reached for a fork and used it to scramble the yolks. Setting the bowl in the microwave, he stacked the plate of bacon on top, then set the timer for a couple minutes and hit the start button. The microwave hummed cheerfully as he rinsed off the fork and retrieved a jug of apple juice from the fridge.

The aroma of the food made his stomach grumble as Atem set his breakfast on the table. He glanced at the calendar before sitting down and crossed off yesterday's date. _'December twenty fourth. Just a couple of hours,' _he mused as he ate. _'It's almost 11 am…the Ishtars should be here a little past noon…. What to do to kill time until then?' _His gaze turned towards the doorway and into the front room. _'I doubt I could find much on TV….' _He shifted his eyes to the front window. Puffy clouds drifted over the calm, shining water outside. The weather looked perfect.

'_I think it'll be nice to wait outside today,' _he decided as he set his dishes in the sink. He went to the bathroom where he'd hung his wet swimming trunks last night. Quickly he stripped out of his _sendut _and stepped into his trunks, then walked barefoot to the shore.

Atem belly flopped into the cool waves, shattering the midmorning calm with a large splash. In the sand, a startled flatfish scurried away to find shelter in more peaceful depths. The impact with the water accidentally knocked the breath from Atem's lungs, causing him to gasp when he surfaced. A mix of salt water and wet hair attempted to smother his face. Brushing it out of his eyes, he noticed there were more clouds populating the sky than what he'd been able to see from the windows.

_'Could there be a storm later?'_ he wondered as he watched some of them drift past. _'They don't look much like storm clouds….'_

Atem usually associated storms with skies that reminded him of cold, grey steel, not blue ones filled with swollen marshmallows. Yet if there was one thing he'd learned while living on this island, it was how dangerously deceptive the clouds could be about the weather they would bring. By the time they gave up their secrets, it could be too late. His thoughts turned to the few occasions when he'd been caught outside in a storm. A shiver ran down his neck as he tried not to imagine how bad it would be on a boat.

'_No,' _Atem told himself firmly, shaking his head. _'Don't think like that. The last thing I need after last night is to get carried away imagining things.' _With a deep breath, he kicked off against the sandy bottom and started swimming laps around the island, seeking to distract his mind through exercise and physical exertion.

Atem's suspicions about the clouds proved to be true sooner than he thought. He figured it could hardly be later than twelve thirty, yet the sun had disappeared behind a thick layer of grey frosting. _'It's definitely time to get out of the water,' _he told himself as he waded into the shallows. The waves were quickly becoming difficult to swim in. _'I hope this doesn't cause too much trouble for Malik's boat….'_

A stiff breeze whipped the ocean's surface like a toy as he glanced back over his shoulder. He shivered. In the absence of the sun, the wind wrapped a bitter chill around Atem's wet body. He hastened towards his house, eager to get inside and dry off. When he was barely two meters from the water, the sound of a boat horn caused him to turn around.

Among the churning waves, about nine meters from the shore, a familiar boat bobbed with the ocean's movement. Atem felt a smile spread over his face as he raised his arm and waved to it. _'They got here safely.' _Relieved, he ran into knee-deep waves to wait. The sight of the boat meant the end of another month of isolation. Someone standing on the bow waved back as the horn rang out again.

'_Looks too short to be Ishizu…is that Malik?' _The distance made it hard for Atem to tell who it was. _'He must have come with Rishid this time…. Although it could be Ishizu steering the boat….' _He stood waving as he watched the boat crawl closer. The stinging wind no longer mattered to him. The thought of spending a few days with someone else left him too excited to care.

Atem slowly lowered his arm. A puzzled frown replaced his smile. _'Something isn't right,' _he realized. _'I can sense it….' _Chills completely unrelated to the wind ran down his spine. It felt as if he was watching the world in slow motion. Malik's boat seemed like a pathetic toy rocking violently in the whitecaps. Waves batted it around like angry cat paws. A feeling of dread settled in Atem's stomach as a swell larger than the others came up behind the boat. Slowly the boat leaned as the rogue wave swept past it. The person on the bow grabbed the railing, clinging desperately, as the boat tilted to an angle that kept getting steeper. Malik's boat was almost vertical when the figure finally lost the battle with gravity, falling off as the boat flipped over completely.

The massive wave slammed into the shore, knocking Atem flat on his back. He spat out saltwater as he shook his head, feeling as if he'd been in a trance. For a brief second, while the boat and the person were in mid-flip, Atem could have sworn he was seeing the Domino News clip again. It took a moment before he realized the cries echoing in his ears were his own.

"MALIK-KUN! RISHID-SAN! ISHIZU-SAN!" he was screaming as he scrambled to his feet. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

Only the empty sound of waves and wind answered as the remains of the boat bobbed in the sea. Unlike the news clip, no wailing sirens announced the arrival of fire trucks or ambulances. No crowds of bystanders stood watching helplessly. There was only Atem, standing in knee-deep water on the shore.

'…_I've got to do something…I can't just stand here…!' _Atem realized with a shiver. Without another thought, he dove into the rolling surf and started swimming towards the boat. He wasn't sure what he could do, but he was determined to help in any way he could.

The waves were well over Atem's head as he struggled to reach the capsized boat. There were moments when all he could do was gasp for air as he tread water in the troughs between waves. _'I may be able to swim, but I'm not used to swimming long distances in rough waves…and certainly not while I'm already tired….' _he berated himself. _'Why did I swim so many laps earlier? That was a stupid thing to do….'_

Atem felt his body protest, craving oxygen as he battled the waves. Muscles in one leg clenched painfully as he kicked against the water, threatening to cramp up on him. As he forced himself on, the water around him became dotted with bits of flotsam from Malik's boat. Watertight containers heaved back and forth on the swells. Atem caught a glimpse of a person face down in the water and swam to the figure as fast as fatigue and the waves would allow.

"Are you alright!" Atem sputtered. "Hey!" He grabbed the person's shirt and turned him over so he could breathe. Atem felt his body go numb as a chill of dread slipped down his spine. _'No…! Don't be dead! You can't be dead!' _Atem struggled to keep them both above the water. "WAKE UP!" he screamed in terror. Desperately, he tried slapping the unconscious figure's face. "YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP!"

The figure winced from the slap. A groan escaped his lips as he started coughing up water. Finally, he gasped, sucking in sweet air as his eyes blinked open. He brushed hair out of his face, wincing as saltwater stung a healing scrape on his cheek. For a moment, his amethyst colored eyes stared into Atem's ruby ones.

A big smile spread across his face. "Hi Atem…long time no see."

"_Meriui _aibou," Atem whispered, part of him fearing that what he saw was too good to be true. "Yugi, what are you doing here?" Relief, elation, concern, and the realization of exactly how isolated he'd felt over the last six months hit him all at once. The flood of different emotions overwhelmed him; he didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.

"I wanted to come visit, so I talked Malik-kun into bringing me during the holidays."

"It certainly has been a while," Atem agreed softly. Through the roar of the wind, he heard another familiar voice cry out.

"Yugi-kun!" it called, "Where are you!"

"Over here Malik-kun!" Yugi called back.

It took a few moments for Malik to swim over to them. "There you are," he panted. He blinked in surprise when he spotted Atem. "Pharaoh, what are you doing out here?"

"I saw your boat tip over from shore...I wanted to help…." Atem's intentions sounded slightly foolish now that he said them aloud. _'Help…yeah, what help can I offer against a storm? All I can do is swim and use a little bit of Egyptian magic.'_

Malik glanced at the boat's hull. "Well, I appreciate the gesture, but unless you can somehow flip the boat and get it working, it looks like we'll have to swim to shore..."

As he spoke, they all turned to look at the island. It sat in the water like an unyielding fortress, promising shelter if they could only make it to the shoreline. Waves battered them mercilessly, pushing them towards land and then away from it. The island seemed both tantalizingly close and impossibly far away at the same time. "I'm...not sure if I can swim that far," Malik said with a frown.

"I don't think I can either," Yugi sputtered as another swell briefly submerged them, "Maybe if it was calm, but with these waves…."

"I'd help you two get to shore, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to make it myself…my leg is starting to cramp," Atem confessed, again regretting those laps he'd swam earlier. He was about to say something else when another wave splashed into his mouth, causing him to cough and gag. _'At this rate, we probably won't be able to keep ourselves afloat….' _The ocean was getting choppier with every passing minute.

Since he was barefoot, Atem was the only one to feel something sleek and rubbery sweep past his ankle. The air around them exploded with clicks, whistles, and squeaks that seemed deafening over the wind.

"What's going on?" Malik shouted as nearly a dozen pearly gray fins poked through the water.

As if to answer Malik's question, one of the dolphins leapt out of a swell, scattering mist and sea foam into the air. Atem laughed with relief. He recognized the jumping dolphin as the one that had tried to follow him home yesterday.

"Dolphins? Wha-what are they doing?" Malik protested as one nudged his back.

"Are they trying to help us...?" Yugi suggested as he struggled to keep his head above water. "I've heard stories about dolphins rescuing shipwrecked sailors."

"I think they are..." Atem murmured as he stared at the dolphins. The one he recognized darted around, seeking to catch his attention. The dolphin swam close and chirped, staring back at Atem. _'I can feel something in her gaze,' _Atem realized, unsure if the dolphin was a female or not. _'Something telling me to trust her….' _Deciding to accept this feeling and trust the dolphin's warm, intelligent eyes, he reached towards the dolphin. She squeaked and nudged Atem's hand, turning so that her dorsal fin slipped into his fingers.

The dolphin clicked and dove, barely giving Atem time to take a last gulp of air. The turmoil of the waves was far less noticeable as the dolphin worked her powerful tail vigorously against the water. Even with a bulky human in tow, she seemed to glide effortlessly through the currents. Atem squinted ahead briefly before the speed forced him to close his eyes. He felt incredible and weightless, like they were flying. Meters raced past in seconds, and the dolphin soon twisted, flicking Atem off her back.

He hit the surface with a gasp, lungs desperate for air. It took a moment of floundering against the incoming waves before Atem realized he was in shallow, chest deep water. Behind him came the sounds of gasping and panting. Turning, he watched as Malik and Yugi, each brought by another dolphin, reached the surface and staggered towards shore. More clicking caught Atem's attention. Much to his surprise, the boxes that had fallen off the boat came bobbing towards him.

'_The dolphins saved the cargo too?' _Atem marveled as he watched the pod nudge the crates into the shallow water.

"Ugh were those dolphins trying to help us or drown us?" Malik coughed.

"They were definitely helping," Atem answered. He offered a hand to help Malik up. "And they didn't just save us."

"Huh?" Malik blinked for a moment before he realized the crates were floating in the water around them. "The supplies!"

Malik hurried over to the crates, splashing everywhere as Atem helped Yugi to his feet. He quickly surveyed the containers' packaging. _'Looks like they're all in tact…all five of them are here….'_ The wind carried away his sigh of relief. "Come on, let's get everything inside."

_The desert moon shone softly through a small boat window as Atem lay in a bed, staring at the ceiling. Clean fresh bandages were wrapped around his injured arm. Whoever that stranger had been, his aloe stuff seemed to be working. Earlier, when Ishizu had changed the bandages, she'd been surprised by how well the burns appeared to be healing. His legs were feeling better too. They had gradually stopped hurting through the day. Neither pain in his arm nor aching muscles was the reason he couldn't sleep. While his body was finally allowing him to rest, his mind refused to settle down. Instead of sleeping, he reflected over the discussion he'd had with the Ishtars in private. On some level, Atem had expected some disagreement, but he hadn't realized their opinions would differ so much. _

_Ishizu had insisted they should resume the ceremonial duel as soon as they could, but was troubled by how long it may take to get back to the shrine in Kul Elna. Malik seemed more concerned about the tremor that had shaken the shrine, afraid it may be too dangerous to return. Atem himself felt conflicted. He'd kept quiet about what the man in the desert had said to him. Rishid had taken no one's side. Instead, he quietly pointed out both flaws and advantages to each plan of action._

_In an attempt to be helpful yet neutral, Atem had mentioned that the shrine's ceiling seemed to collapse as he and Yugi fled. Much to his dismay, this news prompted a heated debate between Malik and his sister about how they were going to get Atem into the afterlife. At one point Malik seemed to question if it was even worth the effort of trying to get back to the underground shrine. Atem had just watched silently, unable to understand since Malik and Ishizu quickly slipped to yelling at each other in Egyptian Arabic. It wasn't until Rishid finally shouted at both of them that the conversation returned to a calmer tone._

_Atem sighed as he rolled over in the bed. The more he thought about finishing his duel with Yugi and going to the afterlife, the more he remembered the strange man's words about fate not always coming to pass. _**'**Not every prophetic destiny comes true...and the proof of that fact is that the world hasn't met a fated end...**'** _he mused. _**'**What would happen if I didn't go...?**'**

_Before they met that man, he'd never questioned what his fate would be. _**'**With the Millennium Items sealed…and the threats they held gone…. There's no reason for me to stay. I'm supposed to go rest…in the Afterlife…. And yet….**'**_ Atem rubbed his forehead as if trying to rid himself of a headache. There was no reason to stay. In spite of that, he felt torn by a growing desire to stay, to live. _

_A cheap alarm clock sat next to the bed. When he looked, its glowing display told him it was 1:31 am. Frustrated Atem sat up and pushed the sheets off him. _**'**Maybe a walk around the boat would calm my nerves,**'** _he hoped. Slowly he opened the door of his room and stepped into the hallway. Looming like ghosts in the dim night, several identical doors lined the wall across from him. More stood to the right and left of his own room. He knew that some doors hid empty rooms, while others concealed his friends' slumbering forms._

_Silently, Atem paced back and forth down the hall. He tried counting his steps, listening for the sounds of the river, anything to keep his mind from dwelling on his uncertain future. Without quite realizing what he was doing, his feet had stopped outside a door. Briefly he noticed it wasn't his own room as his hand quietly slid it open._

_Yugi lay on his side facing the wall, unable to sleep. His left arm was sore, but it no longer burned from the peroxide Ishizu cleaned it with when she changed the bandages. As he'd walked around the boat earlier, the worst aches had faded from his legs. The pillow irritated the sunburn on his face and neck no matter which way he turned. Yet none of those were the true cause of whatever was keeping him awake._

_Behind him, Yugi heard someone quietly open the door. As a reflex, he turned to look over his shoulder. Somehow, he didn't need to see to know who it was. He could feel Atem's presence. "I guess you can't sleep either?" Yugi asked him as he heard the door slide closed._

_"No, I can't," Atem answered quietly as he walked over to the bed in the corner of the room. "Why can't you sleep?"_

_"Dunno, I just can't," Yugi shrugged. He scooted closer to the wall so Atem could sit on the edge of the bed. "...Alright...what's bothering you?" He couldn't see Atem's expression clearly in the dark, but the silhouette of the former pharaoh's shoulders spoke volumes as he sat next to Yugi._

_"Is it that obvious?" Atem blinked, briefly surprised by Yugi's intuitiveness. "I guess the link between us isn't completely severed, even if we've been physically separated," he chuckled quietly._

_"Yeah…. It's not as strong as before, but it probably won't be completely gone until you get into the Afterlife."_

_Atem sat in silence, not quite sure what to say. Sighing, he lay down beside Yugi, finding it more comfortable than sitting. "I'm...not so sure I want to go to the afterlife…anymore," he whispered after a while. A small bit of the anxiety he'd felt in his chest vanished as he finally admitted it, to himself as much as to Yugi. He slowly pulled the sheets over them both, as if to keep his confession from any who might overhear._

_"Why not?" Surprised, Yugi turned over so he was lying on his other side, facing Atem. Despite the dark, he could tell his nose was less than an inch from Atem's. He could feel the warmth of Atem's body next to his own. The Atem beside him was no longer an ethereal spirit, sealed within a puzzle or bound to Yugi's own body. He was solid, real. Alive._

**'**Is it because our duel was unfinished that he's able to exist separate from me...?**'** _Yugi wondered as he felt the breath of Atem's sigh against his cheek. Then he chased the thought from his mind, deciding that the why and the how weren't important, and all that really mattered was that it simply was._

_"I can't stop thinking about that man in the desert...what he said..." Atem slowly slid his arms around Yugi, pulling him closer. He always found Yugi's presence soothing when something bothered him. "And I..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I don't...want to leave you, Aibou..."_

_"The longer you stay, the harder it is to say goodbye..." Hot, salty tears stung Yugi's sunburned face as they splashed onto his cheeks. It was too dark for him to tell who was crying. Atem's skin felt warm against his cotton pajamas. He felt comfortable and safe lying here. As he yawned, he felt his eyelids growing heavy as he snuggled closer to Atem._

**'**This is why I couldn't sleep...I'm not used to being separated from him...**' **_Yugi hadn't told anyone about how empty he'd felt ever since the split. He wasn't even sure how to describe it. It felt like he was hollow, as if part of his heart had vanished or something had tried to shred his soul. Even the separation itself had been painful. A shiver ran down his spine as he remembered the bizarre piercing sensation. It had overwhelmed him, as if a giant invisible hand had reached through his skin and was attempting to yank out random parts of his body._

_"Yeah..." Atem's whisper interrupted Yugi's thoughts. "It's hard to say goodbye...to someone you love..." The night air had been a bit cool for someone wearing only boxers, but Atem no longer felt any chill, only Yugi's body heat radiating through the thin fabric of his worn pajamas. The sunburned parts of his skin felt especially hot against Atem's own. A wave of fatigue finally swept over his restless mind, but he felt no desire to drag himself back to his own bed._

_"So then...what're you gonna do?" Yugi mumbled softly, his eyes already closed._

_"I don't know, Aibou," Atem murmured back. He yawned as the deep bliss of sleep claimed him. "I'll worry about it...tomorrow..."_


	6. Chapter 6

Yugi, Malik, and Atem slumped to the floor of the front room as one. Sweat and saltwater puddled around the trio as they caught their collective breath.

'_Those containers didn't seem so heavy when I helped Malik load them,'_ Yugi thought as he panted. _'But even with all three of us, I'm exhausted.'_ The adrenalin rush from his unexpected swim had worn off and left him feeling wiped out. For a while he listened to the ambient sounds of the wind outside, the steady hum of the refrigerator, and their panting. Finally, Malik broke the relative silence.

"Well...my boat's probably not getting us back anytime soon..." he sighed. "I hope you don't mind us staying for longer than normal, Pharaoh."

"It's fine, better to have a wrecked boat than you or Yugi hurt."

"I don't have to go back to college until January 4th; this beats being stuck at home over winter break," Yugi laughed as he took in the room. "So this is your place," he remarked as his eyes drifted from the TV to the entrance to the bedroom to the carved door that led to the basement. As he leaned to get a better look, something sticking out of his pocket caught Atem's eye.

"Hey what's this?" Atem snatched a plastic card out of Yugi's pocket.

"_HEY_!" Yugi tried to stop him by blocking the pocket opening with his hand, but he was too slow.

Atem studied the card he'd seized for a moment. It wasn't a card for Duel Monsters, or any other game for that matter. A small photo of Yugi grinning sheepishly adorned the card, while the text listed his height, weight, and various other kinds of personal information.

"Class 1: Ordinary motorcycle license?" Atem read aloud. He handed Yugi's license back with a grin. "So you finally managed to pass that driver's test? But why motorcycle?"

"Yeah, no thanks to you after what happened last time," Yugi frowned as he slipped his license deep into his pocket.

"Wait, what?" Malik interrupted. "What do you mean '_last _time'?"

"He crashed," Atem said with a shrug.

"Yeah, because you started yelling and distracted me!" Yugi snapped at him.

"If I hadn't, that convertible would have broadsided you! And didn't they find the guy driving it was drunk anyway?"

"They _failed _me because you made me crash into a building!"

"Okay, _WHEN _did this happen?" Malik looked thoroughly confused.

"Oh, just a few weeks before our trip to Egypt," Yugi told him, all traces of annoyance gone from his expression. "Luckily no one got hurt, just shaken up."

"Why'd you get a motorcycle license though?" Atem asked again.

"The driving instructor...was reluctant to let me test again for an Ordinary license, after what happened last time." Yugi shrugged. "Whatever the license, having a set of wheels still makes getting to college faster in the mornings."

"Ha, I bet. So what kind of motorcycle are you riding?"

Yugi shook his head. "I couldn't afford a motorcycle, so I've just got a moped. That's what I've been riding to and from college."

Feeling well enough to stand, Malik got to his feet and began fiddling with the nearest container. "This stuff's not going to put itself away. We should get the perishable food in the fridge before it spoils." Yugi and Atem moved to other sides of the container. The three of them panted and strained as they struggled to pry the top off. Despite their combined efforts, it remained unmoved, silently mocking their efforts.

"By the Gods of Egypt," Atem protested, "Malik, what'd you use to seal this thing! Concrete!"

"The forecast said rough waves, so I was trying to make it watertight, not impossible to get open!"

"I think you managed to do both," Yugi mumbled as he tried in vain to separate the lid from the crate.

Atem paused in his efforts for a moment to wipe the sweat from his forehead. _'Of course!' _The idea hit him suddenly._ 'Why didn't I think of this sooner?' _he chastised himself. "_Uepi_," he murmured placing a hand along the seal.

Suddenly loosened, the top popped off unexpectedly as Yugi gave it a hard tug. A startled cry came from his lips as Yugi lost his balance and fell over backwards, clutching the lid in his grip as he landed on his rear.

"Oops, sorry Yugi," Atem grinned sheepishly while Malik laughed.

"It's okay." Yugi brushed himself off as he got up. He leaned into the container and grabbed two cartons of milk. "Where's the kitchen?"

"There," Malik and Atem said at the same time, both pointing to a doorway.

"And the pantry is next to the fridge, along the north wall," Atem added.

Malik waited until Yugi was out of earshot before speaking in a low voice. "_I see you continue to use your magic._"He whispered in Egyptian, even though he didn't know the old language quite as well as Atem did.

"_Now and then, yes._" Atem answered equally quietly, also in Egyptian.

"_You know if Ishizu were here she'd go off on one of her rants again. About how-_"

"_I know, I know,_" Atem cut him off. "_She'd say that using other forms of Egyptian magic would 'make us hypocrites for trying to destroy the magic of the Millennium items.'_" He quoted Ishizu with a falsetto that Malik couldn't help but laugh at.

"_She can be such a pain with her persistence._"

Atem shook his head. "_I don't see it the same way she does. I don't use DARK magic. And when I do use magic, it's for practical reasons._"

"_I know. But she still thinks that if you keep it up, you're just inviting some sort of trouble. You're lucky she was too busy to come this time._"

Just then Yugi's head poked out of the kitchen doorway. "Are you going to help or are you going to stand there and gossip while I do all the work? I didn't come here to be cheap labor," he teased.

"We're coming," Atem laughed, slipping back into Japanese as he grabbed an armful of groceries.

Secretly Atem was glad that Ishizu hadn't come along. It was a relief not to have to worry about enduring her lectures regarding his use of magic in front of Yugi, or even an argument breaking out. Magic could cause many problems on both personal and larger scales; Atem wouldn't deny she had a valid point with that argument. Yet he often found it to be highly useful in small amounts. It was so convenient to open a stubborn lid or locate a misplaced object with a few words and energy that might otherwise be wasted. _'The way Ishizu scolds, it's as if ALL magic is bad just because SOME of it can be dangerous,' _he mused as he carried things into the kitchen.

As he walked back to the front room, Yugi caught Atem's attention and shot him a glance. _'I know there's something bothering you,'_ Yugi said, using nothing more than a slight frown and a concerned look in his eyes. No amount of time apart seemed to diminish the strength of the connection they shared. Yugi could tell by the sensation of mild annoyance radiating from Atem, as well as the ever so subtle slump of the pharaoh's shoulders that whatever was on his friend's mind left him feeling irritable.

Atem paused in mid-stride. _'It's unimportant,'_ he said back with a blink.

Yugi answered with a skeptical, slightly raised eyebrow. _'I don't believe that, and I don't think you do either.'_

'_I do want to talk to you later,'_ Atem indicated with another look. _'Alone,'_ he added with a slight glance over his shoulder.

"Hey, quit hogging the doorway," Malik chided as he pushed past Atem, carrying bags that were meant to go in the freezer.

_The morning sun warmed the boat as it meandered steadily along the length of the Nile. Rishid stood in the wheelhouse. He'd spent most of the night there, guiding the boat along the river. He caught a faint scent of syrup drifting from the galley. Soon he could give the controls to someone else and take a nap. Although Rishid couldn't hear it, somewhere below deck, cheerful babble filled a large room next to the galley as Malik and Ishizu fixed breakfast._

_"__The pancakes are burning sis,__" Malik teased. "__I thought you were a better cook than that__." Since no one else was around, he spoke in the Arabic tongue of modern Egypt._

_"__Be quiet, you,__" Ishizu retorted in mock annoyance, poking her brother in the ribs with a batter covered spoon. "__You're hardly one to talk. When you can fry eggs without somehow making the yolk explode, THEN you may criticize my culinary skills__." She grabbed a spatula and quickly rescued the sizzling pancakes before they burned._

_"__Watch these for me, will you__?" she told Malik as she spooned the last of the batter onto the griddle._

_"__You want ME to keep an eye on your pancakes AND the scrambled eggs__?" Malik's eyebrows rose in mock disbelief, but his sister was already halfway across the kitchen. "__Hey__! __You're not even giving me a choice__!"_

_Delicious aromas escaped with her as Ishizu leaned out of the door and into the noise of the dining hall. The first thing she noticed was about half a dozen people wearing a mix of pajamas and day clothes. From where she stood, it was tricky to make out what they were saying. Two different conversations going on at the same time didn't help. Sitting nearest to the galley door, Bakura was the first to notice her._

_"That smells good, Ishizu-san," he smiled._

_"The food will be ready in a few minutes." Ishizu slipped into Japanese. She tended to only speak Arabic around Malik and Rishid, or when with another who used the language of modern-day Egypt. Around others, she did her best to humor them by using their own language if she could. She opened her mouth to ask something, but a completely different question than the one she intended came out. "What in the WORLD is Jounouchi-kun doing?"_

_"I have absolutely no idea." Bakura turned to look at the spectacle, an expression of complete bewilderment on his face. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's connected to boredom somehow."_

_Across the room, wearing nothing but shorts and a sleeveless top and with shoes hanging off his ears, Jounouchi had just climbed onto the back of a chair. He struggled to keep his balance. "See! I told you I could do it, Honda!" he was saying loudly._

_"Sure sure," Honda laughed, "But can you do it while balancing another chair on your chin?"_

_"I really need more female friends," Anzu mumbled as her shoulders slumped in exasperation._

_"Jounouchi-kun, you're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that," Ishizu said as she walked over._

_"Oh, hello Ishizu-san." Anzu perked up immediately when she saw the only other woman on the boat._

_"Good morning," Ishizu smiled back. "Breakfast is almost ready." She suddenly remembered what she had intended to ask Bakura. "Anzu-chan, is everyone awake?"_

_"I haven't seen Yugi yet this morning," Anzu answered, shaking her head._

_"I haven't seen what's-his-name either," Otogi added, overhearing the question. "That Pharaoh guy. I think they both might have slept in."_

_Suddenly Anzu got a mischievous gleam in her eye. "Hey Jounouchi-kun, why don't you go see if Yugi overslept?" As she spoke, she gave his leg a playful slap. It was enough to cause him to lose his balance._

_The shoes fell off Jounouchi's ears as he flailed his arms like a windmill, trying unsuccessfully to keep his balance. With a loud yell, he landed on the seat of the chair. The chair promptly broke into pieces and dumped him unceremoniously onto the floor._

_"Ow!" Jounouchi rubbed his sore ribs. "What'd ya do that for Anzu!" he snapped, more annoyed by her giggling than any bruises._

_Ishizu blinked. It wasn't clear if she should laugh or feel sorry for Jounouchi. She compromised by mumbling, "Breakfast…isn't quite done yet," and hurrying back to the kitchen._

_"It was bound to happen sooner or later." Anzu wasn't even trying to hide her laughter. "Anyway, why don't you go and make sure Yugi and Atem-san don't sleep through breakfast."_

_"Let my best bud sleep through a meal? Not on my watch," Jounouchi grinned as he picked himself up off the floor._

_Yugi lay in bed half-asleep, smiling slightly as Atem's fingers slipped through his hair. He knew it was morning. The sun shining through the window made it an undeniable fact. They'd both heard voices and footsteps in the hall, and they could smell food being cooked somewhere on the boat, but neither of them felt like getting up just yet._

_"If...you don't go to the afterlife...what are you going to do instead," Yugi asked quietly, their conversation from last night running through his mind. Briefly he tried to imagine what it would be like if Atem returned home with him. _**'**I wonder what mom would say.**'**

_"I'm not entirely sure... I wouldn't mind staying with you…unless you have a problem with that...?"_

_"Not really." Yugi felt his face flush warm despite his sunburn as Atem leaned close. His skin tingled as Atem's lips brushed his cheek._

_"Good," Atem murmured into Yugi's ear._

_"HEY YUGI!" Jounouchi's voice suddenly filled the room, accompanied by the loud bang of the door slamming open. "What's going on in here?" he asked after staring for a second. As far as he knew, Yugi was supposed to have his room to himself._

_Yugi pulled the blanket over his head with a startled yelp. The last thing he'd been expecting was that someone would burst in. _**'**How long has Jounouchi been here!**' **_he wondered as his face burned._ **'**How much did he see? He won't think we were…will he?**'**

_Atem was equally as surprised by Jounouchi's entrance, but his reaction was much different. "__Ruik!__" he shouted in agitation at Jounouchi, the sense of Yugi's embarrassment leaving a slight bitterness to his tone. Now it was Jounouchi's turn to wear a shocked expression as a rush of magical energy knocked him off his feet and sent him flying. A ghost of a smile twitched across Atem's lips as he heard the satisfying crash of Jounouchi landing in the room across the hall._

_"Maybe next time he'll knock instead of kicking the door open," he sighed as Yugi peeked out from under the covers. "...Mind if I raid your clothes for something to wear?"_

_Yugi shook his head. "What exactly did you do just now to Jounouchi?" he asked as Atem slid out of bed and began digging through one of Yugi's suitcases._

_"I told him in no uncertain terms to go away."_

_"Not in Japanese you didn't."_

_"I uh…used magic. I kind of...yelled at him without thinking."_

_Yugi got out of bed and went over to the door as Atem pulled out a t-shirt and jeans from his suitcase. "Jounouchi?" He peered into the hall, wanting to know if he was okay._

_"Hey, morning Yugi." Jounouchi rubbed his shoulder as he pushed aside the door across the hall. "Do me a favor, remind me not to try and wake ya before you've had your morning coffee."_

_"Are you alright? And it wasn't me who threw you out, it was Atem."_

_"That explains a lot. I'm fine, Yugi, relax. It takes more than a door to hurt me." He grinned broadly as he spoke. "What was he doing in your room anyway?"_

_"Uh..." Yugi glad his sunburn hid the redness he felt flushing in his cheeks again, but it didn't hide his stammer. "W-we were...just talking." Mercifully, at that moment Atem came up behind him, fully dressed now._

_"I wanted to borrow some clean clothes," Atem told Jounouchi half-truthfully, covering for Yugi. "Since most anything I had three thousand years ago is either lost, dust, or maybe in a museum somewhere, it's not like I have a lot of options without borrowing."_

_"I guess that's true," Jounouchi laughed, not questioning the matter any further._

_Yugi sighed quietly, releasing a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding as he relaxed. "So...what's so important you were trying to break down the door?"_

_Jounouchi's laughter stopped abruptly. "Oh yeah. Ishizu sent me to fetch you guys for breakfast."_

_"Okay, let me get dressed first!" Yugi ran back into his room and shut the door, leaving Atem and Jounouchi standing in the hall._

_Yugi's stomach grumbled as he sat at the long table in between Atem and his grandpa. The scent of food filling the air caused his mouth to water. Everyone waited as Malik and Ishizu brought out at least a dozen large platters of sausages, pancakes, eggs, toast, and a myriad of other breakfast items, along with pitchers of juice, coffee, and milk._

_"It looks good, Malik-kun," Yugi remarked to try to cover the noise of his stomach. "It smells even better."_

_"Hopefully it tastes just as good," Malik laughed in his accented Japanese as he set a large plate of bacon down on the table. "Are you feeling better this morning, Yugi-kun?"_

_"Yes," Yugi blinked. "Why do you ask?"_

_"You'll see if you look in a mirror." Malik went back to the kitchen laughing._

_Yugi turned to Atem. "What's he talking about?"_

_Atem paused in the middle of scooping scrambled eggs onto his plate to scrutinize Yugi's face. "Your sunburn's starting to peal," he stated after a moment. "It's all flakey on your nose." He dumped the eggs onto his plate as Yugi vigorously rubbed his nose with the back of his hand._

"_Is that better?" Yugi asked._

"_Yeah, you got most of it," Atem tried not to snicker. The skin underneath the peelings was redder than the rest, giving the illusion that Yugi's nose was glowing. He forced himself not to laugh as he poured himself a glass of juice. Across the table, Ishizu pulled out the empty chair and sat down._

_"Is Malik-kun not eating with us?" Yugi asked her._

_Ishizu shook her head. "He went to take food up to Rishid. He'll probably eat up in the wheelhouse since it's his shift next." She took a couple of pancakes from the platter as it was passed to her. "Pharaoh," she said softly as she spread syrup over her pancakes, "Earlier, my brother and I felt some traces of magical energy...did you notice anything amiss?"_

_"It was most likely just me," Atem shrugged. _

_Ishizu's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "What do you mean, it was you?"_

_"Jounouchi-kun startled me," Atem answered honestly enough in between bites of toast. "I kind of...threw him out of the room." Turning to Jounouchi he added, "Sorry for that, by the way."_

_"Ah, don't worry about it," Jounouchi grinned. "It's cool, and I'm fine. I can't really blame you for being startled."_

_Ishizu took a sip of her coffee. "So...you were using magic...?" A soft hint of disapproval crept into her voice._

_Atem shrugged. "I probably wouldn't have if I knew it was Jounouchi, and if he had knocked rather than running in the room shouting at the top of his lungs."_

_"But why would you be so flippant about using it? The whole reason the Millennium Items were sealed away was to put a stop to that sort of thing."_

_"There was magic in Egypt before the creation of the Millennium Items, and even though their particular magic is sealed, there will probably be other kinds that continue to exist."_

_"So are you saying you don't care if magic causes the destruction of the world as we know it? If there will always be magic it makes a mockery of our attempts to stop it!" Ishizu didn't care now that everyone was staring at her and Atem, or that her tone was getting louder and shriller as she became more upset._

_"The power in the Millennium Items," Atem replied with forced calmness, "Is DARK magic. But not ALL magic is dark. Some kinds can have very practical uses."_

_Ishizu stood suddenly, causing her chair to scoot back. She slammed her palms into the table and leaned over it to yell in Atem's face. "Then would you have us not seal the Millennium Items at all, if there is such 'good' magic out there to balance the dark powers equally?" She could hardly believe this was the same Atem who had shown almost no reluctance to seal the Millennium Items prior to the ceremonial duel._

_Yugi watched, transfixed by the argument, as Atem slowly got to his feet. Although he was shorter than Ishizu, a harsh frown etched onto his face made the simple gesture as intimidating as if he were the tallest person in the room._

_"__Chesi netet nesep.__" Atem didn't raise his voice, but the words came out so smoothly and sharply it had almost the same effect. He didn't notice that almost no one else could understand what he'd just said. In his anger, he had slipped into his native language without realizing it._

_It took Ishizu a moment to register his words. Although she'd read it plenty of times, she had rarely heard Egyptian spoken. "__Ahr ahw nen tamaut, rek chesk ahu shee?__" She also slipped into the old language._

_With a twinge of satisfaction, Atem noticed that Ishizu's use of his native language was hesitant and in some places slightly grammatically incorrect. "__Chesu aui heka neb nen bin, hena akh khenen nen auf ar sabeki heka nefer.__"_

_Anzu leaned across the table. "Do you have any clue what they're saying?" she whispered to Yugi._

_"Not really," Yugi whispered back, shaking his head. He could tell that whatever they were saying was upsetting Atem, and that Atem was letting Ishizu know that while also trying not to lose his temper. Yet he couldn't even begin to guess what they were actually saying. Silently, Yugi wished he had some way to get Atem's attention or calm him down, but he could do neither without drawing Ishizu's attention. He couldn't shake the feeling that if he got himself tangled in this particular argument, things would get worse instead of better._

_"What is going on in here?" someone called in Japanese. Atem and Ishizu turned to look as Rishid's voice preceded him into the room._

_Holding empty breakfast plates, Rishid stopped just inside the doorway and surveyed the scene. "__You are fighting again, Ishizu__?" He addressed her specifically in Arabic, conscious that all eyes were now on him. He noticed a small frown tug at her lips as she stared at a point just over his shoulder rather than meeting his eyes._

_"If there is a dispute," Rishid continued in Japanese, "Bickering at each other's throats will not resolve it."_

_"__Tiduk nef ne chesmes ptires merer ne sekhmi mem hem ,__" Atem snapped in Egyptian._

_Rishid's eyes widened as Ishizu's head whipped around to glare at Atem. "Pharaoh?" he exclaimed, surprised Atem would call her such a thing._

_Atem didn't answer. He simply turned and strode away from the table, pushing past Rishid so he could get out of the dining room._

_Yugi jumped to his feet. "I'll go talk to him," he told Rishid before running out of the room. His voice echoed as he yelled down the hallway. "Atem! Wait up!"_


	7. Chapter 7

The afternoon hours swiftly passed in a flurry of activity. Despite the workload, Yugi barely noticed when Atem disappeared for a quick shower to wash the salt from his hair. By the time Malik removed the last carton of eggs from the three largest containers, the pantry, refrigerator, and icebox were stuffed to capacity. Malik then pried open the remaining smaller crates, revealing them to contain a myriad of home goods. Clothes, soap, books, and more quickly found their way into various niches around the house. More fragile things, such as spare light bulbs, were carefully unpacked from the wrappings that kept them safe during the trip before being put away.

Light outside the window was fading as the smell of Malik's cooking began to waft from the kitchen. A growl from his stomach prompted Yugi to glance at his watch. He blinked in surprise as he noticed how many hours had passed. Trying not to be distracted by the scent of food, Yugi leaned into one of the boxes to grab one of the last items left in the bottom. His brow furrowed in slight confusion at the object he pulled out. It was a long cylindrical bundle of what felt like twigs, wrapped tightly in cloth.

"Huh? Where does this go," Yugi wondered aloud as he looked over the bundle.

"_Sesh_, it belongs downstairs." Atem shifted a pile of towels so he had one free hand and used it to point toward the carved door Yugi had noticed earlier. "I'll show you when I put these up."

With a nod, Yugi went over to the door in the wall wondering what exactly Atem had meant by downstairs. He examined the eye carved into the door for a moment. It was definitely an Egyptian symbol, made by a hand familiar with the shape, then gouged into the wood by a skilled hand and made to stand out with a dark stain. While the name of the symbol escaped him, Yugi recognized it as a mark of protection. He balanced the bundle in one arm as he pulled the door open.

Carefully he made his way down a dark and narrow staircase. The gloom seemed to press on his eyeballs as he followed the curve of the stairs. As he reached the bottom of the steps, Yugi felt more than saw the walls of the stairwell give way to the openness of the basement. He ran his free hand across the nearest wall. A slight chill crept up his spine as his fingers felt smooth and rough stone, curved and straight lines, and a multitude of geometric shapes. Yet he felt no light switch. Something compelled him to turn around.

"Who's there...?" Yugi whispered nervously. A soft, almost inaudible hiss seemed to echo in the room, so quiet he couldn't be sure if he imagined it. He shivered as his mind took him back to that night on the banks of the Nile, crocodiles waiting in the dark waters, possibly waiting for a chance to taste a young man such as himself. A soft voice behind Yugi jolted him out of his trance.

"_Nebiu deser_."

Yugi winced as bright, warm light flickered into existence behind him. After his eyes took a moment to adjust, he stared at the illuminated room. Hieroglyphics of all sorts lined the walls, carved outlines shaped with colored stone inside the lines. He couldn't tell if the stone was painted or stained, but the hieroglyphs' indecipherability filled the chamber with an air of mystery. Among the strange splendor, he caught glimpses of monster carvings and a figure resembling Atem on the pillars, lending hints of familiarity to the basement.

The sudden weight of a hand on his shoulder reminded Yugi that he wasn't alone. Startled, he swiftly turned and found himself almost nose to neck with the real Atem. Yugi's pulse quickened as he took a small step back. He hadn't heard Atem follow him down the stairs.

"Are you alright Aibou?" Atem asked gently. It felt a little strange to look down at Yugi as he stood on the bottom step. Usually the difference in their height, if any, was so small he never noticed it.

"Yeah," Yugi sighed, "You just startled me." He took another step back so he wasn't blocking the stairwell. _'No wonder I couldn't find a light switch,'_ he mused as he observed the torches on either side of the stairs. "What is this place?" he asked as Atem stepped down beside him.

"This room?" Atem echoed as he watched Yugi look around in amazement. "Just think of it as a little slice of my old home." A hint of a smile touched his lips as Yugi turned to stare at him wide-eyed.

"Did you...draw all this yourself...? Wait...I mean write...no, carve...?"

"Sort of," Atem chuckled. "I planned out the designs." He ran a hand over the figures of a scarab beetle, a bird, and jagged blue lines symbolizing water as he spoke. "But I didn't carve them into the stone. At least not by hand."

_'Magic,'_ Yugi realized as Atem's eyes met his own. "Guess that means Ishizu hasn't seen it," he remarked. Remembering the package in his arms, he handed it to Atem.

Atem took the package and began to unwrap the incense. "She knows I have _some_thing in the basement," he acknowledged, "But she doesn't know about this specifically." He casually waved a hand, indicating the basement as a whole. _'Actually Yugi…you're the only one I've ever shown this to,' _Atem admitted silently as he put away the incense.

"Is that all you need to take care of down here?"

"Yes," Atem nodded. "Now let's go see if Malik's finished making dinner yet."

"Way ahead of you Atem," Yugi teased as he raced up the stairs.

"Aibou.…_ Meriu aibou how I've missed you," Atem laughed softly._ "_Akhem,_" he whispered as he extinguished the torches with a wave of his hand before following Yugi up the stairs.

Dinner turned out to taste as good as the aromas suggested. In a little over an hour, Malik had produced a juicy roast chicken with a bowl of instant mashed potatoes on the side along with a small, simple salad. The small kitchen table only had room for two people so Atem chose to stand at the nearby counter, allowing Yugi and Malik to have the chairs. Casual chatter filled the air as they ate.

"So, Yugi," Atem remarked between bites, "How is everyone?"

Yugi took a sip of his soda before answering. "Alright for the most part, but everyone's kind of gone separate ways."

"What do you mean by that," Malik asked.

"I haven't seen Anzu in a few months. She sends a letter now and then, but she's busy in New York."

"So she managed to get into an American dance school?" Atem asked as Yugi chewed a mouthful of chicken.

Yugi nodded and swallowed before continuing. "Grandpa's age is getting to him, so he got Jounouchi-kun to work part-time in the store." He paused for a moment to take another sip of soda. "Grandpa...his heart's not as good as it used to be, and mom worries about him a lot. I've heard them talking at night. She thinks he should close the game shop and look after his health more, but Grandpa loves the shop too much to do that. It's better now that Jounouchi-kun is helping him, but grandpa still insists on doing many things himself. I'd help more but college just eats up so much of my time…. Otogi-kun and Honda-kun got into the same college as me, too."

"What about Jounouchi-kun?" Malik asked, "Isn't he in college with you? Or did he get into a different one?"

Yugi frowned slightly, his shoulders hunching instead of answering. His chin dipped slightly as he avoided eye contact with Malik or Atem. For a moment, he chewed the inside of his lower lip.

_'Uh-oh,' _Atem thought to himself as he set down his soda can. _'I know that posture. Yugi only gets that look when he's forced to think about something he finds unpleasant.'_

"Well?" Malik pressured, oblivious to the subtleties of Yugi's body language.

Yugi sighed, deliberately avoiding eye contact. "His mom kind of...pulled a crappy move on him," he mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Oh that's right...you don't know, do you Malik. Jounouchi-kun's parents have been divorced for a while. He stays with his dad, and his mom...well he hasn't spent much time with her since the split."

"So what happened?"

"Well...he asked his mom if she would help pay for his college...and she said no."

"That's harsh." Malik shook his head while Atem just frowned.

"It gets worse," Yugi continued, shoulders hunching more. "After he asked, his mom turned around and sent his little sister to an expensive private school. So Jounouchi-kun's trying to save enough money to pay for it himself."

"Parent problems suck," Malik sighed as he stabbed his salad with a fork.

"_Chesmes_," Atem mumbled to himself.

"Yeah, well..." Yugi hesitated as he tried to think of a way to shift the topic. "At least dinner is good...?" He cringed inwardly. _'Dinner...that's the best subject change I can come up with?'_

Atem swiftly noticed Yugi's hint. "Yes," he chimed in. "It's the best I've had in a while. Is it a new recipe Malik?"

"No, not really," Malik chuckled. "Oh speaking of food, that reminds me…." Getting up from his chair, Malik strode past Atem. When he reached the sink, he turned to the former pharaoh, his expression neutral. "When was the last time you cleaned the carousel in your microwave?"

"Huh?" Yugi blinked.

"The what?" Atem looked puzzled.

"The carousel," Malik repeated. "You know, the glass plate in the microwave that spins around when you turn it on? When was the last time you cleaned it?"

"You...have to _clean _that thing?" Atem asked sheepishly.

"Yes," Malik frowned, "Because if you don't it ends up like this!"

Malik lifted the glass plate out of the sink, careful not to let it slip from his fingers. Rather than being transparent, like normal glass, it resembled a giant petri dish that someone had allowed to fester. Pasty, fawn colored fuzz coated the glass. Malik carefully grabbed a sponge and scraped away some of the fuzz to demonstrate how thick it was. When disturbed, the fuzz released a rancid perfume of something rotten into the air.

'_Where the hell did he find that sponge? I've been looking everywhere for that!' _Atem wondered before the smell hit him. "Okay, okay!" He tried hard not to gag while Yugi leaned over towards the wall, suddenly overcome by dry heaves. "I get the picture, the microwave needs cleaning too! But did you have to show us that while we're EATING?"

"It already slipped my mind once," Malik said as he put the plate back in the sink, "I wanted to mention it before I forgot again." He turned the faucet on and furiously scrubbed the fuzz off his fingers.

Yugi pushed his food away with a groan. "Okay I think I'm done, I lost my appitite." He looked up and met Atem's sympathetic gaze. "Mind if I take a shower?"

"Go ahead," Atem said before Malik could complain about overworking the desalination pump. "You need one, I noticed you're tracking sand everywhere."

"Great, thanks." Yugi got up quickly, eager to escape the smell in the kitchen.

"By the way, your oven was covered in dust. I had to clean that out too," Malik's voice drifted after Yugi.

"You KNOW I have issues with that thing..." Yugi heard Atem snap back as he stepped into the bedroom. He wondered what Atem was talking about as he walked past the unmade bed, heading towards the door in the bedroom that was opposite the window.

Only a small window illuminated the bathroom with a narrow beam of moonlight. Fortunately, the moonbeam revealed a switch beside the door. Yugi flipped it, and a soft electric glow filled the room. The bathroom was narrow and rectangular, extending mostly to his right. A counter stretched for a couple meters along the wall across from him. A small mirror hung above a sink, framed on both sides by light fixtures. Yugi noted a mixture of clutter on the counter, including a toothbrush and a half empty tube of toothpaste, a crumpled hand towel, a dirty washcloth, deodorant, mouthwash, and a disposable razor.

To the right of the counter, also against the wall, a damp towel hung on a rack over the latrine. Across from the latrine on the same wall as the door, a set of shelves held clean towels and some unopened bars of soap. A plain white curtain was pulled back, revealing a shower bath set against the wall that the bathroom shared with the kitchen.

Yugi pulled the bathroom door shut behind him, causing Atem and Malik's voices to be reduced to soft mumbles. He dug through all his pockets and dumped the contents on the counter before stripping. Glad to be rid of the gritty sensation he'd been trying to ignore all afternoon, he shook the sand from his clothes.

'_Unless my duffle bag washes onshore, I don't have anything clean to wear,' _Yugi mused. He spread his shirt and pants flat on a bare stretch of counter so the areas that were still damp could dry overnight. "I don't even have any pajamas now," Yugi mumbled as he relieved his bladder. "At least there's soap and shampoo." Sighing, he moved a clean towel so it would be in easy reach when he finished his shower, then tossed a washcloth into a corner of the tub before directing his attention to the shower knob. It was a simple, single knob with an off position and regulated the temperature by turning it farther to the left. Out of habit, Yugi angled the showerhead so it wouldn't splash out of the tub and then turned the knob a little more than halfway.

The water rained down from the showerhead with an amount of force that surprised Yugi. _'Oh I get it,' _he realized, _'It's one of those faucet heads that pressurizes itself to save water.' _He stuck his hand under the spray to test the temperature. Frowning slightly, he jiggled the knob back and forth until he was satisfied. He stepped into the tub, pulling the curtain closed behind him.

Salt, sweat, and, sand ran down Yugi's body, carried away in tiny streams as the lukewarm water pounded into his shoulders like a gentle massage. A handful of cuts and scrapes caused stinging sensations to spread through his skin. His bangs covered his eyes, like a curtain of wet straw, from the added weight of the water. Yugi stood for a few minutes letting the spray wash over him. A sense of relief flooded him as the cascade swept away not only the sand, but also the stress and the feelings of loneliness he hadn't realized he'd been carrying.

Yugi wiped the hair out of his eyes as he bent to pick up the washcloth and grab a bar of soap. Working the soap into a lather, he began to scrub over every fold of his skin. His cuts burned from contact with the suds. He scrubbed every bend and joint, getting out every irritating grain of sand that he could still feel.

Next Yugi reached for the bottle of shampoo. He was sure Atem wouldn't mind him using it. Squeezing a dollop of the fruit scented goop into his palm, he worked it into his soaked hair. He wiggled his fingers, surprised by the effort it took to spread the lather. The salt from the ocean seemed to have made his hair stiffer than normal.

_'Guess that's why Atem didn't wait to wash his hair,' _Yugi realized as he continued to massage his scalp. Tilting his head back so the suds didn't drip into his eyes, he worked his fingers through his hair until it was soft and sleek.

When the water drizzling down his back ran clear Yugi quickly flicked the knob back to the off position. Goosebumps prickled his flesh in the cool air as he squeezed excess water from his hair. He pulled back the shower curtain and grabbed his towel, rubbing it vigorously over his hair and body as he stepped out of the tub. Once the towel had absorbed all the moisture it could, he hung it beside Atem's on the rack.

'_What time is it?' _Yugi wondered as he glanced around the room for a clock. Seeing none, he walked along the counter to where the contents of his pockets lay scattered.

_'Now I'm glad Malik insisted I got those pants with waterproof pockets,' _Yugi thought to himself as he flicked open his cell phone. _'Still dry and still working,' _he noted gladly as he checked the time. The digital display informed him it was 8:47 at night. A slight beep from the device drew his attention to a mark in the corner of the phone's screen.

"Aw man," Yugi mumbled, "I didn't realize roaming mode drained the battery so fast." Closing his phone, he set it beside the charger on the counter. He surveyed the walls. "…No outlets in here."

Yugi ran a hand through his damp hair as he glanced at the contents of his pockets. Almost as a reflex, he quickly pulled his hair back with one hand while he grabbed a narrow band of cloth with the other. Using the strip of cloth, he loosely tied his hair back into a short, spiky ponytail. He checked his clothes. His boxers were dry enough to sleep in, so he pulled them on and then rearranged the rest of his clothes to allow the damp parts to dry better. Grabbing his phone and charger, he flipped the light off as he left the room.

Moonlight lit the bedroom as Yugi entered it. After the brighter light in the bathroom, his eyes couldn't distinguish much other than the shape of Atem's disheveled bed. Calm stillness surrounded Yugi. No light or voices spilled out from the other rooms. He had only taken a few steps into the room when a voice cut through the darkness.

"That's a new look for you, Aibou."

Yugi jumped. Atem's voice had surprised him. He turned towards the bed again, rubbing his eyes. This time he could tell Atem was lying on the bed with his arms folded behind his head.

"You startled me," Yugi said with a small sigh.

"Sorry," Atem said as he sat up. "When'd you start wearing your hair like that?"

"College," Yugi shrugged. "They make me pull it back for chemistry lab. I kind of...just got used to leaving it pulled back." He held up his phone. "Is there an outlet in here? My battery's dying."

"Yeah there's one here by the bed." Atem slid out of bed and took the phone charger from Yugi.

Yugi noticed that Atem was wearing only an Egyptian skirt, although part of his mind doubted it was actually called a skirt. He watched Atem fumble to find the exact location of the outlet. His gaze traveled over Atem's naked back, taking in every discernable contour in the dim light. Fleetingly he wondered if Atem's tan had gotten darker since they had last been together. It took a moment for him to realize Atem was talking to him.

"There we go," Atem was saying. "I'll put your phone here on the table, okay Yugi? …Yugi?"

"Huh? Oh, thanks. Is Malik-kun asleep already?"

Atem nodded. "He crashed on the couch a few minutes ago." He set Yugi's phone on the nightstand. The phone's battery light now shone a soft orange as it charged.

"I'll just sleep on the floor then; I don't want to wake him."

"The bed is big enough for two of us."

"You sure?"

"I won't let you sleep on the floor Aibou."

Yugi could hear the stubbornness in Atem's voice. "...Alright."

"So tell me..." Atem walked around the bed as he spoke, sitting down on the edge that was closer to the window. "How've you been?"

"Pretty good," Yugi shrugged as he sat down on the empty side of the bed.

Atem was silent for a moment. "That TV out there...it's got some funny reception..." His shoulders tensed, as if he was bracing himself for bad news.

"It does?" Yugi blinked.

"Yeah…you never know what it's going to pick up... Last night it got Domino evening news." His brow furrowed in concern and eyes filled with worry, Atem felt his lips form the question he'd been dying to ask all evening. "What happened?"

Yugi's eyes widened in comprehension. "You saw the fire...?"

Atem nodded silently. "...After not seeing you so long...it felt like someone had punched me in the gut... Especially since they didn't say if you were alright."

Yugi's shoulders sagged. "Kinda wish you hadn't seen that. It was chemistry lab...Otogi-kun's lab partner...Kenshin-kun. AGAIN. I honestly don't know if he's a klutz, doing it on purpose, or if he's just an idiot. EVERY single time we're in the lab, he manages to mess up SOMEHOW or break something."

"What'd he do?"

"One of the lab beakers didn't get cleaned...it had some yellowish gunk in the bottom and we were told not to touch it. Kenshin-kun...grabbed THAT beaker and put it over the burner. I don't know what was in it, but a few minutes later, Otogi-kun noticed and started yelling at him for it. And then before Otogi-kun could get it off the burner, whatever it was exploded and the fire started."

Yugi stared past Atem's shoulder, gazing out the window a moment before continuing. "The fire was between most of us and the door, and we didn't know when…or if…the fire department would get to us. Eventually the smoke got so thick it felt like the only choice was jump out the window or burn..."

"And you jumped…."

"Yeah. They said I was really lucky. I landed in some bushes that broke my fall. I walked away with a few cuts and scrapes." Yugi ran a finger along the scrape on his cheek as he spoke. "Everyone was lucky. No one had to stay in the hospital overnight with serious injuries. Kenshin-kun had some burns on his face and arm but they weren't that bad. Otogi-kun ended up with burns and some glass shards embedded in his shoulder, but that was the worst of it since they were the ones closest to the explosion."

"I'm glad you weren't hurt." A feeling of relief swept through Atem like a weight falling off his shoulders. He knew from the way Yugi talked that there were more injuries than what he could see, but cuts could heal. "Is everything else going well for you?"

"...Yeah."

"No it's not...I know that tone. Tell me what's wrong."

Yugi leaned back on his hands. "You know me too well," he said teasingly, "I can't keep anything from you."

"After all this time, it seems our bond is still there."

"Yep." Yugi took a deep breath, trying to relax. "There is...one thing, but it's more of an annoyance than a big problem."

"Oh?"

"Jounouchi-kun won't quit teasing me about finding a girlfriend." Yugi avoided meeting Atem's eyes, feeling his cheeks flush red. "And if he brings it up at the wrong time, then my MOM gets onto me, wondering why I don't have one and that I need to find one and just...stuff like that."

Atem briefly imagined Yugi running around with a faceless stranger, and felt a twinge of irritation. "You haven't gotten one yet?" he asked, trying to distract himself from the feeling.

"N…not really."

"Any reason why?"

"I...don't know." Yugi felt his face growing redder. "I've...tried...to look around. Maybe find someone I could...you know, get an interest in... But every time I think I find someone I want to get to know a little better..."

He shook his head, lowering his gaze to study the bed sheets. "I don't know how to describe it... I get this...choking feeling... It's like I'm about to do something I'll regret forever.… I guess you could say it's almost a...guilty feeling... And then I get scared and avoid the girl like the plague for a few weeks. And it happens _every_ time." He bit the inside of his cheek, unable to bring himself to admit his last thought. _'And I...often find myself thinking of you when it happens,' _he told Atem silently.

"It led to a couple of awkward weeks with my lab partner once..." he added quietly after a moment.

"And yet Jounouchi still teases you?"

"N…no, not all the time... But then...I haven't told anyone but you." Yugi could feel his cheeks and ears burning bright red now. Shyly he risked a glance at Atem, afraid the former pharaoh would be laughing at him.

"Let's... Can we talk about something else other than my dating failures?"

"Don't worry," Atem whispered, his expression soft. "I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks," Yugi smiled. "You know...I've sometimes wondered... Is there an Egyptian equivalent of 'aibou'?"

Atem thought for a moment. "There isn't…an exact translation…. But if I had to choose an equivalent…." He leaned close and whispered in Yugi's ear. "_Meriu_."

"Muree-oo?" Yugi repeated awkwardly.

"It means 'beloved'," Atem said softly. "Or 'lover', depending on the context," he added even softer.

'_Lover….' _Yugi felt his face flush again as the word echoed through his mind. _'I don't…know if I'd go that far about…us…. Maybe 'beloved' though…. __Meriu __Atem….'_

"_Meriui_," Atem whispered gently in a correcting tone, guessing at Yugi's thoughts. He smiled at the questioning look Yugi gave him. "Add an i to the end...that adds 'my' to the meaning."

"Oh…." The silence stretched on between them, growing more awkward with each second.

Atem was first to break the tension. "You must be tired. Let's get some sleep."

"Yeah. Good night…." Grateful for the subject change, Yugi lay back in the bed. "…_Meriui_ Atem," he added quietly as he closed his eyes.

_A breeze from the river blew through Atem's hair as he sat in the shade on the boat deck. "For the last time Yugi," he sighed, "I'm not going to tell you exactly what Ishizu-san and I said." He tried silencing Yugi with an annoyed glare, but it was impossible to keep his expression from softening to more of a weary look._

_"Alright fine," Yugi relented as he sat beside the former pharaoh, "But will you at least tell me why you won't...?"_

_"Lost my temper," Atem mumbled, "Said some things I probably shouldn't have. Things I'd rather not repeat. I shouldn't have swore at her."_

_Yugi put his hand on Atem's shoulder. "It's alright. Everyone says things they don't always mean when they get mad. It just shows you're human like the rest of us."_

_"...I guess you're right." They sat together in silence, watching the scenery of the Nile drift past. Along the riverbank, an ibis skimmed the riverbank for food with its beak. Now and then sunlight would flash off the scales of fish darting just beneath the surface of the water. Small kingfishers plucked out the scaly morsels as they swooped through the air._

_"You know," Atem said after a while, "I don't quite recall...the water being this clear."_

_"You're right about that." Malik's voice floated out the door before its owner stepped into view carrying a small tray with three glasses of iced tea. "It's the dam that caused it. By the way, I brought something in case you were thirsty."_

_"Thanks, I'll take one." Yugi reached for one of the glasses as Malik sat down beside them._

_"Thank you." Atem grabbed a glass for himself and took a sip. "What do you mean the dam?"_

_"The dam at Aswan," Malik said as he pulled some packets of sugar out of his pocket and tossed them on the tray. "Well, it's sort of two dams, the Aswan Low dam and the Aswan High dam."_

_Atem immediately grabbed two packets of sugar. "When were those built?" he asked as he tore the packets open. He dumped the contents into his glass, using the straw to stir it._

_"Both were built within the last hundred years, but they weren't built at the same time. The government wanted to regulate the Nile's annual floods."_

_"But the floods are what let Egyptians farm the Nile valley successfully," Atem frowned slightly as he spoke. "They didn't just bring water; they left behind sediment that helped crops grow. The __maamet, __or 'black land,' we called it."_

_"Yeah, that doesn't happen anymore. The dam lets the water flow, but not the sediment. Farmers just use more water and fertilizer to raise crops."_

_"Dams also generate electricity," Yugi chimed in. "That's something you didn't really need back in ancient times, is it?"_

_"True," Atem laughed._

_"There are some drawbacks though," Malik said after taking a sip of his tea. "I've heard that the sediments used to clog up some of the irrigation canals, but now that the water's clear they get clogged with aquatic weeds instead. And I don't know exactly what causes it, but in some places the increased access to water has made the soil too salty to grow much of anything."_

_"Wow, sounds like in some ways those dams have hurt more than they've helped..." Yugi looked out over the river, trying to imagine how it would have looked thousands of years ago during a flood._

_"Things sure have changed," Atem agreed as he took another sip of tea._

_"Of course there are some places no one wants to even try to farm the land. Like the area around Kul Elna..."_

_Atem closed his eyes and sipped his tea in silence for a moment. _**'**I should have realized _this_ is what he really wanted to talk about….**'**_ "Alright," he sighed, "Was it Ishizu-san or Rishid-kun that asked you to come out here and talk?"_

_"Neither. I heard about what happened at breakfast and came out on my own. I...know a thing or two about disagreeing with Ishizu, after all."_

_"If you already know what happened, then why talk to me about it?"_

_"I want to hear your side of the argument. Sis may have told me what you said, but she can't tell me why." Malik put his drink down and watched Atem, waiting for an answer as Yugi rubbed the former pharaoh's shoulder comfortingly._

_"I'm...not sure if even I know the exact reasons why," Atem said slowly. "But I do know...I don't want to walk through that door to the afterlife. Even if there's no reason for me to stay, I just want..." He shook his head, unsure how to put his thoughts into words._

_"You want to be free don't you...? Free to do what you want with your life. ...Free like how I wanted to be free."_

_Atem said nothing, but found himself slowly nodding in agreement with Malik's words._

_"I know the feeling, Pharaoh…. I've been there."_

_"Three thousand years ago...I gave up my own life to seal a dark power…. Most don't get a second chance at life. I never thought I would. Yet now...I find myself sitting here, and I don't want to die again. …At least not so soon. What am I supposed to do...?"_

_"I doubt I'm the best one to judge, but..." Malik shook his head. "After everything you've done... I don't think anyone should have any right to say when you die, except for yourself, Pharaoh._

"_And don't worry about heading straight back to Kul Elna like Ishizu wants to. We're actually heading towards Cairo right now...we'll be there in about an hour. One of the jeeps got messed up in the sandstorm. Probably sand in the oil or something. But whatever it is, we need to get it fixed or get a rental or something before we can even try to get back to the underground shrine. So that gives you some time to think about things."_

_"…I don't want to go back, I'm fairly certain of that."_

_"Yeah well...Ishizu won't be satisfied until we at least try. But hey, if the roof really caved in, then it doesn't matter what anyone wants you to do, right?"_

_Atem's shoulders sagged. "I guess," he sighed in agreement._

_"Atem..." Yugi whispered quietly. He slipped his arms around Atem, pulling him close in a comforting embrace._

**'**At least Yugi seems to be able to help the Pharaoh feel better,**'**_ Malik thought. _**'**After all the time they've been together, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he knows the Pharaoh better than anyone.**'**_ He watched as Atem closed his eyes and laid his head against Yugi's shoulder. A gentle smile spread across Atem's face as he leaned closer and slid an arm around Yugi's shoulder. Deciding not to bother them anymore, Malik got to his feet and quietly walked back inside the boat, leaving them alone in the shade with their forgotten tea._

_Atem had no idea how long they had been sitting on the deck. He could hear distant noises that seemed as if they belonged in a city. _**'**Those sounds weren't there a moment ago...were they?**'** _He squeezed his eyes closed even tighter. Beside him, he felt Yugi's body stir ever so slightly. Yugi's arm slid down his back. The movement brought a smile to Atem's lips as he leaned against Yugi. Again the noise attempted to disturb him._

_"Did I fall asleep?" Atem mumbled. Slowly he forced his eyes open, squinting in the glare of the afternoon sun._

_"Yep." Yugi's voice seemed loud in his ear._

_"Any tea left?" he asked as he sat up a little._

_"The ice melted and now it's all watery."_

_"It's wet, that's all that matters." Atem took the glass that Yugi handed him. "Thanks, Aibou." The taste was now bland, but it felt good running down his throat._

_"There you guys are!" A woman's voice surprised them both. They turned to look as Anzu bounded out the door._

_"Oh, hey Anzu," Yugi smiled. Atem just waved as he finished the last of the watery tea._

_Anzu blinked at them for a moment. As the heat hit her, she temporarily forgot the reason she was looking for them. "Don't tell me you've been out here since breakfast! It's been HOURS! How can you stand the heat?"_

_"Malik brought us some cold drinks."_

_Atem set his empty glass on the deck and shrugged. "It's not that bad in the shade if you're used to it."_

_"…I'm still not used to seeing the two of you split apart like that." Anzu shook her head._

_"Why were you looking for us?" Atem asked._

_"Because we've docked in Cairo. Rishid-kun got the jeep towed to a mechanic but he won't be back for a while. So I wanted to see if anyone was interested in taking in some sights. We _are _tourists, in a way."_

_Atem shifted his gaze to Yugi. "What do you think?"_

_"Yeah, it might be fun," Yugi smiled back. "It's probably better than just waiting around here," he added, giving Atem a pointed look._

_"Alright." Atem read Yugi's unspoken message clearly. _**'**I can get farther away from Ishizu-san in the city than on the boat,**'**_ Atem thought as he got to his feet, stretching his muscles in the process. Sitting on the deck for so long had left him feeling a bit stiff._

_"Great!" Anzu exclaimed with a big grin. She looked towards the pyramids looming on the horizon. "Maybe we could get a camel ride to see the Great Pyramids. I've always wondered what it would be like to ride a camel or a horse…."_

_"Camels aren't exactly fun to ride," Atem muttered to himself as he watched Anzu list off more things they could do. Anzu didn't hear him, but Yugi stood and caught his eye. "For men, if you know I mean," he whispered in response to Yugi's raised eyebrow._

_A look of understanding flickered over Yugi's face. "I think I'll take your word for it," he whispered back. Then he turned his gaze back to Anzu. "So, when where you thinking about going on this tour?"_

_"Huh? Oh! Right now. Everyone's ready, we're just waiting on you guys." Anzu's enthusiasm took them both by surprise. "Let's go!" She hurried back inside the boat._

_Yugi waited until she was out of sight before he spoke again. "Hey, Atem...if Ishizu comes with us...let's just try to have some fun, okay?"_

_"I'll…try," Atem sighed as they followed Anzu into the boat's air-conditioned interior._


	8. Chapter 8

A lonely wind stirred the barren branches of the trees. Looming high above them, the Kaiba Corporation office building stood like a mighty giant, oblivious to the December chill. Most of the lights inside had winked out when employees left hours ago. The only light that remained lit inside the building glistened like a star from a window near the top floor.

A tall floor lamp cast a warm glow over the room. Its soft light left the furthest corners draped in shadow. A polished wood desk stood near the window. The surface was tidy but for a few items. A phone sat in one corner, a computer on the opposite end. Scattered between lay a few papers, an empty coffee mug, and a deck of cards. Seto Kaiba sat at the desk, his face illuminated by the cold glow of the computer screen. A gentle rhythmic tapping surrounded him as his eyes flickered back and forth between several program windows. The sound paused as he took his hand off the keyboard to brush a lock of hair out of his eyes.

Seto knew it was late. He didn't need to see the clock in the corner of the screen, telling him it was almost 10:30 on Christmas Eve. _'Mokuba's probably going to chew me out for working late again,' _Seto mused, _'…If he's not already asleep when I get home.' _He couldn't blame his brother for that. Seto would probably do the same thing if the situation was reversed. _'Sorry Mokuba, but I've got to finish these two projects by New Year's at the latest.'_

Seto leaned back in his cushioned chair, eyes scanning over what would soon be the latest Kaiba Corp technology to hit the market. The company had not been doing as well as it could have been the last couple of months. Truthfully, no business was. The economy was somewhat unpredictable right now, the problems due in part to shady business practices used by companies overseas that had finally gone belly up. Like ripples in a pond, the fallout of those foreign companies had spread and now threatened to drag others down with them.

It all just meant more overtime and headaches for Seto. If he'd thought little of those companies before all this trouble, he now considered them fools for believing they could make such scandalous practices work out long term. He didn't worry about his own company though. Once the Japanese New Year was over, he would set his employees to work building his latest design. He was confident it would stabilize Kaiba Corp's economic standing when it finally hit the market.

Minimizing the design schematics, Seto shifted his attention to his other project. Only two or three other people knew about this one. About a month ago, a security breach in the Kaiba Corp mainframe came to his attention. Upon inspection, nothing seemed to be amiss in the system. It almost seemed as if the culprit just wanted to browse through the Battle City tournament records for kicks. He didn't know who was behind it, but Seto had taken it upon himself to redesign the company's firewall and other security. After weeks of testing and retesting, he was almost satisfied with the program. It just needed a few more tweaks. He hoped to have it up and running by New Year's.

_'I should probably call it a night,' _Seto thought as he rubbed his eyes. Fighting back a yawn, he scrolled the mouse over to the save icon and clicked on it. The computer's fan began to hum contently as its processors started to record the updated versions of the files. Three seconds later, a sudden silence deafened the room as the screen went black and the lamplight died.

It took a moment for Seto's tired brain to realize what just happened. He stared at the blank monitor, now lit only by pale moonlight filtering in from the window behind him. "You have _GOT _to be kidding me," he mumbled irritably as he jiggled the computer's power switch. "A power failure _right in the middle of saving_?"

The computer remained unmoved, almost mocking him in its dark stillness. Seto swore angrily under his breath. His best hope was that the sudden power loss hadn't corrupted the backup files. A resigned sigh escaped his lips as he gave up his attempts to get the computer back on. He shivered. With the power gone, the heat had shut off too. Cold was rapidly seeping in through the windowpane behind him.

Seto turned around. His first reaction was to close the blinds in an attempt try to keep some heat in the office. "What...in the...?"

His eyes widened as he saw large fluffy tufts of white drifting past the window. It almost seemed to be shining in the moonlight. Transfixed, Seto got up from his chair and stepped closer to the window. As he looked closer, he realized there was no moon. A cloudy, black haze obscured any light in the sky.

'_Why does it seem to be glowing…? What is it?' _Carefully he eased the window open. Goosebumps spread along his arms as he scooped up some of the white fluff on the windowsill. It was soft and frigid to the touch. The white lump slowly melted as he looked at it. Dark water dripped onto the floor near his feet.

"Snow?" Seto's whisper seemed to hang in the chilly air. He shook his head. '_It can't be…Domino doesn't get much precipitation around this time of year. And even the coldest nights don't usually fall below freezing….'_ Yet he couldn't deny that the substance melting in his hands was clearly snow. "But how…?" he whispered. "It feels like it's at least five degrees above freezing…."

Seto wiped his hands dry on his shirt. Something about this snow gave him an eerie feeling. _'White...the color of bone...and therefore a color of death in Japanese tradition...' _

The thought came unbidden to his mind, and he quickly shook his head, trying to clear it out. Lately thoughts of the supernatural would sometimes disturb him. _'Maybe Mokuba is right,'_ Seto tried to reassure himself. _'Maybe I've been working too much and the stress is getting to me….' _A sudden noise caught his attention. He whirled to face the dark office, but nothing seemed to be there. _'That's it. I'm definitely taking a vacation over New Year's...I need to relax.'_

A low voice echoed in the office, coming from the direction of the door. "Seto-sama of the Kaiba Corporation, I presume?"

Seto's mind raced as he tried to see who was there. The voice would have sent a chill through him even if the speaker hadn't been shrouded in darkness. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. For some reason, the speaker's tone gave him the impression of a business meeting…one that was about to go horribly wrong.

"...I'm going to have to ask you to come back tomorrow," Seto told the voice when he finally managed to make his vocal cords cooperate. "With a scheduled appointment."

"You are in no position to be making demands." The echo of footsteps surrounded Seto as the speaker stepped forward. The stranger conjured a bubble of silver flame in the air between them. Flickering, gentle light filled the office, revealing the owner of the voice.

The stranger was as tall as Seto, if not a little taller, with broad shoulders and long legs. His arms and bare chest rippled with lean muscle as he moved. A long cloak fastened around his neck framed his form. Dark jeans and polished shoes made an unnatural contrast against the blood red mantle. Flowing raven hair wreathed his face. Thin lips bore a taunting, dark smirk between a sharp nose and a strong jaw. Cobalt blue eyes glistened like cold, hard diamonds, completing an expression that seemed to say he knew a secret and he wasn't about to share it. Standing in the flickering light, the man's skin appeared to lack any color apart from a dim white glow of its own. Seto had never been one to believe in ghosts, but if anyone would ever ask him to describe what a goryo might look like, he would never be able to imagine a better image than the stranger standing before him.

'_That look in his eye….'_ Seto noted, _'It's as if he knows me…but I've never seen him before….'_ An aura of deep malice was oozing from the stranger. Its tangibility almost overwhelmed him. He was positive he would remember a man who seemed so savage and powerful it made his knees weak.

"Who are you," Seto demanded of the stranger, forcing his voice to stay calm, "And what do you want with me?"

"You should know who I am, _Seto-chan_," the stranger hissed, eyes flashing ominously. "You used to know who I am, before you turned your back on the past. …Or maybe I should say 'who I _was_'.… We have both changed over the years."

Seto seethed as the man spoke. _'Seto-"chan"! He dares mock me?'_

"As for why I am here...it is family business... You will pay for what you did, Seto-chan. Or rather, for what you failed to do. I will teach you that blood...is _ever _so much thicker than water."

"…If you intend to attack my company, I won't go down without a fight." Seto folded his arms and tried, despite his trembling knees, to glare at the man as best as he could.

"My intent is not your company. It is you Seto-chan."

"Right…." Seto wasn't sure if he was more frightened or angered by this stranger's taunting threats, but he tried not to let either emotion show. "You may talk tough, but you haven't beaten me yet."

"...'Beaten'?" The man threw back his head and a cold, empty sound echoed through the office. Just hearing it seemed to paralyze Seto. It took a moment for him to realize the man was laughing. Then the noise stopped as abruptly as it started. Seto could only watch as the man leaned forward and reached toward the Duel Monsters deck on Seto's desk. He plucked three cards from the top, fanning them out and showing Seto his precious Blue Eyes White Dragons.

"Seto-chan, Seto-chan, Seto-chan," he said as he shook his head in a manner of scolding disappointment, "You think I am here to _duel _you. Tsk tsk tsk! You have been fighting with these _children's_ _games_...using them as your sword and your shield for so long that you have forgotten how to fight in _other _ways..." Sneering in contempt, he flung the Blue Eyes cards at Seto. "That is...if you ever _KNEW _how to fight at all..."

"I've had about enough of you," Seto finally snapped as he regained his voice. Letting his anger get the better of him, he ignored the uneasy feelings he had about the man. "If you want to try something, then do it. You've got me here, all alone. Isn't that what you want? Go ahead, try to kill me!"

Before he even realized the man was moving, Seto found himself slammed against a wall. The stranger's face loomed close. An icy hand had clamped around his throat with a grip of iron. He tried to yell, to scream, but the only thing that could escape his lips was a gasping, gurgling noise as he struggled to draw a breath of air. Seto could feel his heart pounding violently against his ribcage as a rush of pure terror swept through him. His head spun from lack of oxygen, but he could still see the man's eyes clearly. Those cold cobalt eyes sparkled with glee as they watched Seto suffer.

Seto's lungs burned with a need for air. Everything except the man's eyes seemed to turn grey. The rest of his office faded to darkness, as if he was staring down a long tunnel. Desperately he clawed at the stranger's arm, but it only made the stranger squeeze tighter. Seto felt his struggles growing weaker as everything around him was fading. _'Why did I have to open my damn mouth….'_ he thought as he felt his body start to go limp.

As quickly as it happened, the stranger's hand was gone. Seto's legs buckled underneath him. He slid down the wall and crumpled on the floor like a rag doll. The only sound he could hear was his own ragged gasps as he gulped down sweet air.

"All in good time," the stranger hissed. A feral grin spread across his face. "Revenge is a dish best eaten cold, and I intend to savor it. So I will let you live. _For now_."

Suddenly warm light stung Seto's eyes. Blinking several times to clear his vision, he realized it was coming from the lamp. The power was back on. He looked for the stranger, but there were no signs that anyone else had ever been in his office. Shaking, he got to his feet.

_'Was that...a really bad dream...? Did I fall asleep while working?' _Seto wondered. Gingerly he rubbed his neck. He winced as he felt the pain of a very real bruise left by the stranger's chokehold. _'No,' _he decided with a shiver. '_That was...far too real to be a dream. He almost killed me….'_

As he stepped toward the window he didn't remember closing, Seto saw his Blue Eyes cards lying on the floor where the stranger had thrown them. He reached down to pick them up. One of the cards was wet. It had landed in the puddle of melted snow on the floor. Gently he wiped it dry with his shirtsleeve before setting it on his desk to dry.

The computer monitor lit up when Seto's hand accidentally bumped the mouse. He blinked in confusion. Both of the programs he'd been working on cheerfully displayed dialog boxes saying the files had saved successfully. It was as if they system had never lost power at all.

"How is that possible?" he whispered as he sat down in his chair. He ran a quick check to see if anything had been altered. Everything was exactly as he'd left it. Baffled, Seto was about to shut the computer down when something caught his eye. He looked down at the corner of the screen. According to the computer's clock, it was almost 2 am.

Seto glanced at his watch, sure the computer must be wrong. His eyes widened when he realized the two clocks had the same time. He leaned back in his chair, mind reeling with shock.

_'That's...impossible... He couldn't have been here for more than fifteen minutes! So how did nearly three and a half hours of the night just disappear? Just who was that guy, and how the hell did this happen?' _Overwhelmed, Seto held his head in his hands as everything replayed itself in his mind.

_'A man I've never met before has just strangled me, for something I may or may not have done in the past...and somehow all of that happened over a span of nearly three and a half hours.' _Seto lifted his head enough to glance at the computer clock again.

_'I...probably should go home...' _He shook his head and rubbed his temple again. _'No...someone would catch me even if I tried to sneak in...either Mokuba or one of the servants... Then I'll end up having to explain…. Explain what? How can I explain what happened when I hardly understand it myself...?' _One thing Seto did understand was that his weariness from earlier was gone. The dose of fear-induced adrenalin he'd received woke him up better than the strongest cup of coffee. His gaze settled on his deck as he peered between his fingers, triggering a chain of thoughts in his mind.

_'...Could that guy have been one of those magic freaks who seem to show up from time to time...?' _he wondered. As much as Seto hated to admit it, that idea was the only one he could come up with that made even the tiniest amount of sense. _'Even if he was another freak show reject...this one is definitely dangerous. And I don't know enough about...magic...to be able to deal with him.' _The bruise on his throat throbbed. It was a painful reminder that his usual way of dealing with threats like the stranger would probably just get him killed.

Seto bent over and pulled open the bottom desk drawer, leafing through files and papers in search of a single phone number he had only dialed once before. _'I may not know the best way to deal with freaks who claim to practice witchcraft…but I know someone who _does_...' _Finally he pulled a crumpled scrap of paper from the back corner of the drawer. Spreading the paper flat, he picked up the phone on his desk and began dialing the number he had scrawled years ago.

The phone rang four times before someone finally picked up. An older woman's voice mumbled sleepily on the other end of the line. _'Must be his mom,' _Seto realized. "Put Yugi Muto on the phone," he said, cutting off her mumblings. "Now. ... It doesn't matter what my reason for calling is, just get him! ... What? What do you mean he isn't there!" He sighed as the Mrs. Muto babbled something about a trip during the college holiday break. "Fine, just give me his cell phone number. ... JUST GIVE ME THE DAMN NUMBER WOMAN! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS NONSENSE!"

Shouldering the phone, Seto grabbed a pen and scribbled down a second phone number underneath the one for the Kame Game Shop. "Got it," he mumbled. "Thanks," he added as a quick afterthought. He hung up before Mrs. Muto could say another word. Picking up the phone again, he dialed the new number.

"He'd better answer this," he grumbled into the receiver as the dial tone changed to ringing.

* * *

A small blimp circled the sky in the early morning hours, its presence unnoticed by most people on the ground. Spread below the craft lay a view that most would find breathtaking. The thin morning sun lit up the city of Los Angels, reflecting off glass and giving the illusion of a shining gem set into the earth around it. Heavy blinds on the windows of a small office blocked all of this splendor from sight. The view was, to the room's single occupant, nothing more than an unwanted distraction.

In this dark room, a woman reclined in a plush chair. Her bare feet rested on the desk in front of her, crossed at the ankles. She had slipped her shoes off some time ago to work more comfortably. A slim laptop balanced expertly across her knees as she typed. The olive complexion that normally attested to her Italian ancestry was bleached several shades of white in the glow of the computer screen.

One of the desk drawers was halfway open, its contents barely visible in the dim light. A photograph lay inside. The image seemed fuzzy, as if it had been taken from a distance. It was still clear enough to determine what was happening in the photograph. The photo showed a vehicle crowded with people racing over desert sands. One of them, a man with dark skin and wild hair, appeared to be directing a wall of fire to sweep across their trail. Next to the photo rested a sturdy dagger. The gilded hilt seemed to contrast the blade, which appeared to be made of an unusually dark metal.

The woman's brow remained wrinkled in concentration until a sound reached her ears. Recognizing the heavy footsteps that approached, she casually flicked the drawer closed. She tore her gaze from the computer for the first time in hours. The door slid smoothly open as she watched expectantly.

Carrying a palmful of silver flames, a pale man walked into the middle of her barren office. His blue eyes seemed to shine with a light of their own as he took in the woman.

She was young, he knew, but not too young. The lines etched into her firm face told a tale of grief and stress that forced her to grow up much too quickly. While her face looked older, the full curves of her body suggested she was younger than her true age. Yet today a plain black dress made her difficult to distinguish from the dark room around her. Her dark red hair took on a purple sheen in the light of his fire as it cascaded down her back. He watched and waited for her to speak.

"Shinobu." She addressed the man in English; an American accent filled her rich voice. "You're late. You said you'd be back an hour ago."

"I beg your pardon, Agatha-san," Shinobu replied with a heavy accent in his English. "I was not aware I couldn't have a bit of pleasure from my meeting...a chance to sample what is yet to come." His face remained cold and neutral, but his tone hid a smirk.

"The time for games will come later," Agatha reprimanded, her eyes flashing silver. "Now is the time to make sure everything is flawless. All the planning in the world is pointless if we do not execute things properly. The tiniest blunder now could ruin everything later."

"Relax," Shinobu's low voice crooned. "I left a tasty morsel of bait for little Seto-chan to enjoy. He is clever enough to come up with holographic technology. I assure you he will take it like an obedient little mouse. Then it is up to your computers to follow his electronic trail of crumbs to the other one."

Agatha's lips parted in a wicked grin as she glanced at her laptop. "Mr. Kaiba has proved most willing to help us. He has already fallen for your bait and is on the phone as we speak. The mouse is leading the way to where the rat hides."

Shinobu threw his head back and laughed. "Yes," he howled in Japanese, "Run little Seto-chan, and show us where your friend hides. Enjoy what little time you have left!"

"Once we have the location of the rat," Agatha continued when Shinobu quieted down, "It will fall to you to flush them out of hiding. I don't care how you do it; just get them to the location I have prepared. I will make sure they do not escape. But you must get Mr. Kaiba AND _that_ man. I will not act unless you lure them both in. Anyone else…is just a bonus." As she spoke, she pulled the photograph from her desk drawer.

Shinobu glanced at the photograph. _'She's shown it to me plenty of times before,' _he thought irritably. He picked it up and pretended to study it in order to placate her. _'I don't care about these others, but if it means having Seto-chan where I want him….'_

"Hi no me woshita otoko," Agatha heard him mutter. When Shinobu lifted his eyes from the photo, his glare was cold enough to form frost on Agatha's eyelashes. "Remember," he growled in English, "Seto-chan is _MINE_. You promised me that."

"Of course. We both would prefer to see Kaiba dead, but your motive is far more personal than mine. Who am I to deny you your rightfully deserved revenge?" Agatha's declaration rang boldly through the room. "As long as you actually get the job done when the time comes, I assure you that Kaiba will be at your mercy." The motherly smile she gave Shinobu did not warm the cold depths of her grey eyes. "And then I shall give you..._your _reward," she added in a seductive whisper. _'I find it difficult to wait to give it to you. But I shall enjoy giving it to you so very much.'_

* * *

Atem's mind lay in the strange limbo that exists between consciousness and sleep. Vague dreams danced under his closed eyelids, dulling most of his awareness of his surroundings. Yet despite his hazy, sleepy state, he could feel the warmth of Yugi's smooth skin next to his own. A gentle sigh slipped through Atem's lips. He hadn't felt this relaxed or content for a long time.

As if in response to the sigh, Yugi snuggled closer in his sleep. He gave a tiny snore as he buried his face half into the pillow and half into Atem's shoulder. A small smile spread over Atem's face, either from the motion or from a dream.

A shrill electronic tune began to whistle through the night. It cut through the sleep fogging both their minds, forcing them to full consciousness.

"…The hell is that noise?" Atem grumbled irritably when he could no longer ignore the sound. He opened one eye as he felt Yugi stir. Moonlight from the window bathed the room in a gentle glow; it was still several hours before dawn.

"Huh?" Yugi yawned as he rubbed his eyes. "...That's my phone." He rolled over and grabbed the buzzing device off the nightstand, squinting at the brightly lit screen. "...I don't recognize the number."

"Who's calling you at this time of the night!"

Yugi quickly pressed a button to accept the call. "Hello," he mumbled sleepily into the phone. "Speaking.…" His eyes were half-closed. He couldn't wait to hang up and go back to sleep.

Atem sat up, watching as Yugi listened. He could hear someone talking animatedly on the other end of the line. The voice seemed familiar, but he couldn't hear it clearly enough to place it.

"Could you slow down please, I can barely understand you. …Who's calling anyway?" Yugi's eyes flew open wide and he sat up in surprise. "_Kaiba_!" he exclaimed, now fully awake.

"WHAT?" Atem shouted, just as shocked as Yugi. "What does he want!"

Yugi glanced at Atem and shrugged one shoulder. _'How should I know,' _his gesture said. He continued listening to the phone in his ear. "Wait, _what _happened?" he asked suddenly, his attention completely on Kaiba now.

Atem frowned as he watched Yugi listen. Even though he couldn't understand the words, he thought he could hear a hint of panic in Kaiba's voice. _'Am I just imagining that...?'_

"Well I don't really know what that would be about," Yugi frowned. "But I...yeah, I could get a hold of him if I had to." He glanced at Atem, surprised and confused. "Why would you want to talk to...? Hey!"

Atem leaned across Yugi's lap and snatched the cell phone. "Kaiba do you have any idea what time it is!" he bellowed into the mouthpiece.

"W-who is this!" Kaiba's voice responded. "Atem?"

"Yes, it's me. Now hang up and go to sleep. If it's that important then call back in the morning!"

"Now you listen to me-" Kaiba started to say.

"_Shemt hak nehep_," Atem snapped in Egyptian. He mashed the button to hang up before Kaiba had a chance to answer.

Yugi took the cell phone back from Atem. "If he calls back, he's not going to be happy," he mumbled as Atem lay back down in the bed. He set his phone back on the nightstand, hoping that he wouldn't get another call.

"I hung up on him, not you. If he wants to be mad at someone, he can be mad at me. But how'd he get your number? And what'd he want?"

"I'm not sure," Yugi sighed as he lay down beside Atem, "But it sounded like he thinks a goryo attacked him."

Atem chuckled. "A goryo? Are you sure that was _Kaiba_ on the phone?"

"It _is _kinda strange. Kaiba's pretty much the last person I'd expect to be saying that kind of stuff." Yugi shook his head. "I don't know, something doesn't feel quite right...or maybe I'm just imagining things…." He fell silent as Atem's arm slipped comfortingly around his shoulders. Yugi's eyes closed as he laid his head against Atem's shoulder. For a while, he did nothing but listen to the gentle beat of the former pharaoh's heart, letting the sound soothed his worried mind.

"Hey.… …_Meriui_," Yugi murmured after a few moments.

"What?" Atem slowly ran his fingers through Yugi's hair.

"What did you say to Kaiba, right before you hung up on him?" Yugi kept his eyes closed, feeling more relaxed from Atem's touch.

Atem hesitated before answering. "...Something you should never repeat in front of your mother."

"Sounds like he won't be happy if he ever figures out what you said."

"The key word is _IF_," Atem smirked. "And I know you won't tell. Let's just forget about it and go back to sleep, Aibou." Yawning, he laid down on his pillow again. While part of Atem's mind did wonder what could rattle Kaiba enough to rant about goryos, he shoved those thoughts aside as sleep claimed him again.

_The streets of Cairo were noisy and crowded. Natives from stalls and shops called out in Arabic, trying to entice tourists and shoppers to buy their wares. Some salesmen carried their goods and walked around trying to sell them. Everything seemed full of life. Yugi felt he needed another pair of eyes to take in all the sights, but he wished the language wasn't so confusing. He was glad Malik was with them to translate. Alone he knew he would be hopelessly lost._

"_Hey…where did…?" Yugi blinked and looked around. A man leading a camel loaded with packages had just crossed Yugi's path and caused him to loose sight of everyone. Someone shoved him from behind as a different group of tourists walked past. _**'**Dammit! It's times like this I hate being short!**'**

_"Let's go somewhere a little less crowded."_

_Yugi heard a voice speaking Japanese drift through the Arabic shouts. _**'**That sounded like Otogi-kun,**' **_he realized. He began pushing through the throng of people._

_"I keep loosing track of everyone," Otogi was saying to Malik as Yugi reached them. "Hey, there's Yugi-kun."_

_"We have to find everyone first," Malik answered. "Where's Anzu-chan?"_

_"I think saw her go into a store," Atem's voice called. Squeezing between some tourists who rudely refused to move, the former pharaoh hurried over before he got lost in the mob again._

_"Does anyone see Jounouchi-kun, Honda-kun, or Bakura-kun?" Yugi asked. Knowing he would never see them if he looked, Yugi instead turned and gave Atem a quick sympathetic glance. They were nearly the same height. The difference, if there was any, could only be a few centimeters at most. _**'**Atem's got it just as rough as I do in a crowd.**'**

"_Let's try not to get separated again looking for the others." Atem nodded back at Yugi as he spoke. "Someone's camel almost sat on me before I found you."_

_Moving as a group took a while, but they eventually managed to find everyone. Anzu came out of a shop carrying two large bags. They found Jounouchi buying food off a street vendor with Bakura and Honda looking lost nearby. Malik did his best to act as a tour guide, promising to take them to the edge of Cairo._

"_Don't worry," Malik reassured everyone. "I know a spot that's not so busy. And it's got a pretty good view of the pyramids."_

_Atem fell towards the back of their group as they walked. He made sure not to fall too far behind, yet he wanted to take in as much of the city as he could. His eyes swept over the people and buildings around him. From what he could see, there appeared to be a mixture of squat older buildings and taller, sleeker new ones. The architecture ranged from simple to elaborate styles that came from other cultures. The people also seemed exotic compared to the Egypt that Atem used to know. They swarmed around like lively insects, wearing clothes dyed in colors and patterns he would never have dreamed possible back when he was still the pharaoh. The crowd even seemed to sound like it belonged to a different species. All around he heard people squawking in Arabic, mixed with the occasional native dialect of a tourist or two._

**'**This land was once my home,**'** _Atem mused with a twinge of sorrow as he watched two Muslim women walk past, their faces obscured by cloth. _**'**Now I can't even understand the language of its people.**'** _He felt his footsteps slow. Blinking in confusion, Atem tried to quicken his pace. He couldn't let himself be separated from the others, but his feet seemed uncooperative. Something made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Looking around, he realized a woman sitting against a nearby wall was glaring him in the eye. Her outfit was nothing like he'd seen in the city so far. It was awash in exotic, electrifying colors. Yet her clothes seemed pale against the vivid turquoise of her eyes._

**'**Why is she staring at me?**' **_Atem wondered. _**'**And why can't I move...?**'**_ The woman sprang forward like a snake. Atem's brain screamed at his body to react, but his muscles refused to obey. Before he knew it, the woman had seized his arm in her boney hand._

_"__Walad kowayyis!__" she screeched._

_"I'm sorry," Atem told her in Japanese, "I don't speak Arabic..." He tried to pull away from the madwoman, but her grip was like iron._

_Yugi glanced over his shoulder when he heard Atem's voice. His eyes widened. "Malik-kun! MALIK-KUN!" he shouted when he saw the woman. He turned and pushed through the mob of humanity in front him._

_The woman's eyes blazed when she heard Atem speak. People turned to stare at the spectacle, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. She dragged the former pharaoh closer. She began whispering in Japanese, though her accent was so thick, Atem could barely understand her. "Beware," she hissed into his ear, "Beware red cloud over head!"_

_Before Atem could even think to ask what she meant, he heard a familiar voice ring through the street. "__Hey!__" Malik shouted in Arabic. "__Leave the tourists alone, gypsy!__"_

_The woman glared at Malik. She shoved Atem into the dirt, and then fled down the street until she was lost in the mass of onlookers._

_Atem coughed a little as his impact with the ground knocked the wind out of him. He felt another hand grab his shoulder, but this time it didn't seem hostile. It only took an instant to recognize the touch, even though he'd only felt it a handful of times. He gratefully let it pull him to his feet._

_"Are you alright, Atem?" Yugi asked as he helped the former pharaoh stand._

_"Yeah," Atem sighed as he rubbed the bruise the woman had left on his arm. "Just startled, that's all." He noticed the rest of their friends standing about a meter behind Malik, watching but ready to help if they had to._

_"What did she want from you?" Bakura wondered aloud._

_"Your guess is as good as mine." Atem shrugged. He honestly had no clue why she had singled him out, nor did he understand what her strange whispers were supposed to mean._

_Honda glanced down the street, checking to see if the woman was truly gone. "Who was she anyway?"_

_"She's just some local gypsy woman," Malik answered. "She's always on the streets somewhere in Cairo. Always quiet, always staring. I've never heard of her lashing out at anyone like that before, though."_

_"Sounds to me like she's got a few screws loose." Jounouchi shook his head._

_"Guys, let's not worry about it too much," Atem said suddenly. "I'm fine, and we came to try and relax, right?" He put on a reassuring smile. However, in the back of his mind, the gypsy's mention of a red cloud left him feeling uneasy. _**'**It sounded like some sort of prophecy or prediction…and not a good one…. But until I have some idea of what this 'red cloud' is, I don't want to get everyone worried. Jounouchi-kun could be right for once; maybe she _was_ just crazy.**'** _Atem managed to convince them, and Malik soon continued leading the way through Cairo._

_Yugi gave Atem a skeptical glance as they walked side by side. "You're sure that gypsy is nothing to worry about?" he whispered as they followed Bakura's white hair through one of Cairo's narrower streets._

_"Aibou.…" Atem hesitated. He should have known better than to think he could fool Yugi. "…If I'm worried about something, you'll be the first one to know."_

_Yugi knew from the subtleties of Atem's expression that this time he meant what he said. Still, he couldn't help pressing Atem further. "You're sure…?"_

_Satisfied when Atem nodded, they walked on in silence._

_In a little less than an hour, Malik had led everyone to a tourist viewpoint located about a kilometer from the base of the Great Pyramid. "Wow," Anzu breathed in awe. "It looks huge, even from this far away!" She shaded her eyes against the sun as she looked._

_"Yeah," Honda agreed. "It's mind-boggling to think something that big was built without any modern tools." He raised a disposable camera he'd purchased and snapped a photo._

_"You know what," Otogi said to Honda, "I've heard rumors that the pyramids were built by aliens." He stepped away from a pair of observation binoculars to let Yugi have a turn. _

_"Really?" Honda asked as he, Anzu, and Yugi all blinked at Otogi. "Maybe we'll see a UFO if we come back at night."_

_"You have GOT to be joking," someone protested._

_Otogi jumped and turned around. "Oh! I…uh…didn't see you there, Mr. Pharaoh-san," he stammered._

_"Aliens? Seriously?" Atem stood with his arms folded, one eyebrow arched incredulously over his otherwise neutral expression. "That has to be the most RIDICULOUS idea I've ever heard. And you can just call me Atem."_

_"Oh, uh, alright. And…uh…the alien thing is just an urban myth I've heard..."_

_"A myth that's not true."_

_"Pardon me, Atem-san," Bakura spoke up suddenly, "But you don't seem to be very interested in looking at the pyramids."_

_A wistful look filled Atem's eyes. "That's because you could say these are not the true pyramids." Now everyone was staring at him with baffled expressions._

"_What do you mean, these aren't the real pyramids?" Jounouchi asked. "They look pretty authentic to me."_

"_I think I get it," Malik realized. "They were different three thousand years ago, weren't they?"_

"_Yes." Atem turned and gestured to the Great Pyramids as he spoke. "The pyramids you see now are nothing but the inner cores, piles of rubble compared to the originals. Long ago they wore outer shells of polished stone, capped with tips made from an alloy of gold and silver. The way the light reflected off their sides from the sun…it was like nothing you can imagine. By comparison, today they are nothing but shadows of their former selves." He shook his head sadly. "Time has not been kind to them…."_

_"That must have been quite an impressive sight," Bakura whispered in awe, summing up everyone's thoughts as they all stared at the giant monoliths trying to imagine it._

_"You have no idea," Atem murmured. He was the only one who could picture it clearly. Part of him wished he had some way to project the images of the pyramids as he remembered them to his friends, as he felt words alone were not enough. _**'**I can't even share the memory with Yugi,**'** _he realized._

_Suddenly a deeper sensation of sorrow and loss filled Atem's heart. _**'**I haven't been this close to the pyramids since my father was laid to rest in his tomb.**' **_He tore his gaze from the pyramids, part of him glad that Yugi couldn't sense the tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. _**'**At least his soul should be at peace, if Osiris and Anubis did not hold the creation of the Millennium Items against him during his judgment.**'**

_Anzu felt someone tap her back. She turned around to find a strange man smiling at her._

_"__Hal yomken an akhoz lak sora?__" the man asked with a grin._

_Anzu took a slight step back. "I...I'm sorry, I don't..."_

_"__Hal yomken an akhoz lak sora!__" the man asked again, matching her step back with one forward._

_"Anzu-chan." Malik walked over. "He's asking if you want a photo taken."_

_"Oh!" Anzu looked at the man again. Now she saw the professional camera the man was holding. _**'**Why didn't I notice that before…?**'**

_The man waved his camera to the side, trying to direct her attention to something. Following his gesture with her eyes, she saw he was pointing towards a small shopping stall that appeared to be offering a photography service to tourists._

_Anzu's eyes lit up. "Malik-kun, can you ask him how much it is?"_

_Malik relayed Anzu's question to the photographer. He listened calmly as the man launched into a rapid stream of Arabic. He listed off nearly a dozen photo packages and their prices almost too fast for Malik to catch them._

_When the man finally stopped for breath, Malik quickly turned back to Anzu. "He says he usually charges about twenty-five Egyptian pounds for each different photo or reprint," he explained as best he could in Japanese, "Give or take a little depending on the size of the print. But apparently he's got a sale right now where you can buy eight of any size photo and/or reprints for a hundred and fifty-five."_

_Anzu bit her lip as she thought. "That's...about...how much is that in Yen...?" Silently she wished her strongest subject was math instead of English._

_"Um...I think it'd be...about five thousand yen for the package... But I could be wrong, so don't hold me to that."_

_"Hmm..." Anzu checked how much money she had in her purse, and then looked around to do a quick headcount on their group._

_"Okay," she told Malik as she handed him some of her money. "I'll take the package of eight copies. I want to get a group photo for everyone as a souvenir." Leaving Malik to deal with the purchase, she went to gather everyone in one place._

_Several hours passed and evening shadows began to lengthen when the group finally left the pyramids. "I can't believe we couldn't find a camel ride," Anzu sighed as they trekked back to the boat. "Oh well, maybe we'll find one tomorrow when we come back to pick up the photos."_

_"Count me out," Atem mumbled under his breath._

_"Malik-kun, do we have to go back through all those crowded streets?" Yugi asked._

_Malik blinked. "Huh? You don't like the crowds?"_

_"It's not the crowds, I just don't like the feeling that I'm about to get lost or trampled every three minutes."_

_"Well I guess we could head straight for the river and then follow it to the boat..."_

_"I actually agree with Yugi," Bakura said quietly. "The streets of Cairo seem so busy…it is a bit nerve-wracking."_

_"Okay then, the river is this way." Malik stepped off the path they were on and began walking towards the Nile._

_The look on Yugi's face was enough to tell Atem that they both felt an uncanny sense of déjà vu. Their journey through the desert was still fresh in their minds. Unlike last time, they were already close to the river and they didn't have to travel alone. The meters disappeared swiftly amid friendly chatter. Walking was also easier without any mountainous walls of sand to climb. Yet despite feeling more lighthearted, the blazing sun was still just as brutal._

_"Is it just me or is this heat starting to drive anyone else crazy?" Jounouchi asked after they had been walking for half an hour. "I'm starting to wish I'd worn a cooler shirt."_

_"Yeah, me too." Otogi wiped the sweat from his brow as he spoke._

_"I don't see how anyone could live here without an air conditioner," Anzu remarked as she fanned her face. "Yugi, was it this bad when you were walking through the desert yesterday?"_

_"Worse," Yugi groaned. "We had to climb all those big sand dunes in this heat." Just thinking about it made him cringe. He didn't like being reminded of how hot it had been or how thirsty he'd felt._

_Atem pulled off the shirt he'd borrowed that morning. "It's not too bad, if you're used to it." He draped the shirt over one shoulder as he walked. The slight breeze felt good on his skin._

_"Yeah you might have a point," Honda said between sips of his melted slushy. "Too bad only you and Malik-kun are used to it."_

"_Actually, I don't care too much for this heat either," Malik admitted. "The Tomb Keeper's catacombs where I grew up were always cool since they were underground."_

_"Don't worry about the heat too much." Yugi glanced at the western horizon as he spoke. "It'll get cooler as the sun goes down."_

_They had been walking through the arid land for almost two hours when a strange noise caught Bakura's attention. _**'**Was that an animal? It sounded big….**' **_He stopped and looked around at the sparse vegetation. Nothing was there._

_"Hey Bakura, what's the matter?" Jounouchi called, noticing that he had fallen behind._

_"I could have sworn I heard something following us." Bakura felt a bit anxious. Now everyone had stopped to look at him._

_Jounouchi laughed. "What would be crazy enough to follow us through a desert?"_

_"It's probably just an animal," Malik suggested._

_"I don't know," Bakura frowned. "It sounded...bigger... Heavier..."_

_Atem kept his face neutral. _**'**Thieves…slavers…exiled criminals…lions...**' **_Mentally he ran through the possible dangers that he was familiar with, unsure how many were still a threat in the modern world._

_"YEEEK!" Anzu shrieked as she whirled around. "I heard something behind me!" She quickly backed away from a small bush._

_"Don't tell me that YOU'RE hearing things too," Jounouchi groaned at her._

_Yugi stood very still, watching as his friends broke into an argument. He could hear something big shifting its weight in the sandy grasses behind him. The noise faded, only to be replaced by labored breathing. _**'**Bakura's right,**'** _he realized. _**'**Something's definitely here…. I have a bad feeling about this.**' **_He searched for some way to get his friends' attention without alerting whatever…or whoever…was watching them. Almost as if he could feel Yugi's unease, Atem quickly met Yugi's eyes with a questioning glance. Before Yugi even had a chance to answer, the ground erupted in sand, grass, and feral yells._

_Everything seemed to happen too fast. Six men burst from their hiding places scattering sand in all directions. They shouted in Arabic, screaming at themselves and anyone that moved. Some of them waved large guns and one man went so far as to fire a shot into the air. The men wore the robes of a desert caravan, with turbans covering all but their eyes. The ambushers ignored the screams of their prey, forcing the group into a tighter cluster._

_"What's going on," Anzu screamed, clinging to the arm of whoever was closest._

_"I'm not sticking around to find out!" Jounouchi tried to run past them._

_"Jounouchi-kun!" Yugi watched helpless as one of the armed men smashed the butt of his gun into the back of Jounouchi's skull. A groan of pain escaped Jounouchi. A second later, he fell unconscious into the sand. His attacker then shoved Jounouchi's limp form back into the group._

_Malik tried to catch the men's harsh words as one of them seemed to take charge and bark out orders. "You guys," he whispered in Japanese, unsure who could hear him. "I think.… I think they're slavers."_

**'**So the slave trade managed to survive to the present day,**'** _Atem mused as he surveyed their attackers. His muscles were tense. Right now, he would like nothing more than to teach these men a lesson for hurting and scaring his friends. Three thousand years ago, only a fool or an enemy would have dared to ambush a pharaoh. Back then they would have paid dearly for their actions. Atem was confident he could do something about these men. He knew he was still capable of lesser magic, even if he probably couldn't summon forth a Ka. Yet he hesitated._

_Bakura winced as one of the slavers jabbed him with a gun. He couldn't understand anything the men were screaming as they organized everyone into a line. One of the slavers took the lead. Another fell in line behind them. The four with guns positioned themselves in rows of two on either side of the main line. Near the front, Bakura saw Otogi and Honda were being made to carry Jounouchi's body between them._

_Yugi's knees shook as the slavers made them march. The pace they set was brisk, and Yugi had to move his feet almost twice as fast. As the shortest, he had been stuck in the middle of the line. It soon became clear they did this to keep him from falling behind, either by accident or on purpose. Whenever he slowed down, Malik was forced to step on his heals from behind. If the slavers noticed him slowing before Malik did, one of them would prod him in the back with a gun. In front of him, Atem was having similar problems._

_"Atem, I'm scared," Yugi dared to confess, keeping his voice to a whisper._

_"I know," Atem whispered back._

_"What do we do?"_

_Atem didn't answer. _**'**As long as they have guns, it's too risky to try anything.**'** _He remained silent as the slavers led the way to an unusually brushy area of the Nile's banks. Several meters into the brush, they were finally allowed to stop. They had reached a hidden campsite._

_Atem looked at their surroundings, taking it all in. Cloth tents and a dune buggy stood around them like stoic guards. A seventh man sat near a fire. To the left he could see a trail worn into the ground by the buggy's tires. The man who seemed to be the leader barked out another order, and one of the unarmed slavers hurried towards a tent. His mind worked furiously. Ideas formed rapidly in his head and were discarded just as quickly._

'There's got to be a way out of this mess…those guns are a real problem….**'**_ Atem's gaze turned to the flickering campfire. Another idea, better than his previous ones, began to form in his head. "__Seshura rekhiu ahaau biat__," he murmured softly. Now he had a couple of minutes to warn everyone else what he was up to._

_Malik's face turned pale. "He told them to bring chains," he translated in a whisper._

_"That's not good." Otogi shook his head. A slight groan made him look at Jounouchi. "Well, at least he seems to be waking up."_

_Honda glanced around. "We've got to get out of here. But they have that jeep..."_

_"Don't forget about their weapons," Bakura frowned._

_A smirk flickered across Atem's face. "Just be ready to act. In a few more moments, we're going to steal that vehicle. I've already set up a distraction."_

_Everyone looked at him. "What are you...?" Yugi started to ask, but his question was cut short._

_One of the slavers let out a squeal of pain as he threw his gun to the ground. He shook his hands frantically, like someone had just poured boiling oil on them. His cry was swiftly followed by those of his companions. Voices screamed in confusion and anger as they tried in vain to figure out why their weapons had suddenly become far too hot to touch._

_"Whoa! Atem-kun what did you do?" Honda stared at the slavers._

_Atem motioned at the fire. "Play with fire and you get burned, right? Malik-kun, get the keys to their jeep. I'll take care of the last one. Let's get out of here!" He ran towards the tent where the seventh slaver had gone. From the corner of his eye, he saw Malik rush over to the man who acted like the leader while the others hurried to get Jounouchi into the dune buggy._

_Malik grabbed the slaver by the shoulders and shook him. "__Where are your keys!__" he shouted at the man in Arabic._

_The slaver just gawked at him for a moment. "__I will give you nothing! You are our prisoner now you filthy dog,__" he screamed._

_"__WRONG ANSWER!__" Malik contorted his face into an angry snarl, one he had often used to intimidate people before abandoning the Ghouls. "__Give me the jeep keys or else you will face a power your people have long forgotten existed in this land!__" It was a bluff. Malik had nothing to fight with, and unlike Atem, he was powerless without a Millennium Item. Still, he hoped that Atem might be able to back up the threat if the man saw through it._

_The slaver's eyes widened and he quickly fumbled in his robes, pulling a key out of a pocket. "__No, no!__" the man pleaded. "__Don't bring black magic here! No demons!__"_

_Malik snatched the key and shoved the man into the sand. He raced to the dune buggy. Jumping into the driver's seat, he slammed the key in the ignition right as Atem scrambled into the crowded back seat._

_"Let's go! They'll be able to use their weapons soon," Atem stammered. Blood from a split lip dripped down his chin._

_"Hang on!" Malik turned the wheel and stomped on the gas. The buggy lurched forward, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake. Malik steered it out from the brush and began driving parallel to the river._

_Yugi turned around, risking a glance behind them. "Uh-oh, they're trying to follow us," he groaned, wishing he hadn't looked. Beside him, Anzu screamed when a bullet pinged off the side of the jeep._

_"Not good, NOT good," Otogi mumbled._

_"Malik-kun!" Atem called, "Step on it! I'll try and scare them off!"_

_"What? You are NOT getting out of this jeep, Pharaoh! Are you insane!"_

_"Just floor it and trust me!"_

_Another bullet narrowly missed Malik's ear, silencing any further protest. _**'**You better not do anything stupid,**' **_he thought as he stomped on the accelerator pedal. The dune buggy responded by leaping forward. Its tires threw up a huge plume of sand, obscuring the slavers from view for a few seconds._

_Atem turned and focused everything he could muster on the curtain of sand falling through the air. "__Rekh hena sekebeb shai__!" he intoned. The sand instantly burst into flame as it fell through the dusky sky. The wave of fire disappeared just as quickly, leaving behind a shimmering wall of hot glass in its place._

_The gunshots stopped as the now-terrified slavers instantly gave up the chase. They no longer cared if their prey got away. None of them wanted to find out what else the strange Egyptian man was capable of._

_Atem closed his eyes and leaned back as fatigue replaced the adrenalin rush. _**'**Thank Ra and Horus that worked.**'** _A weary smile spread over his face as he felt Yugi's body lean against him. The dune buggy was so crowded that Atem barely noticed the chill of early night against his bare chest. He let his head droop against Yugi's shoulder, dozing off as Malik drove into the rapidly darkening twilight._


	9. Chapter 9

Seto winced as the sun peeked from behind a cloud and dazzled his peripheral vision. He squinted in an attempt to see better as his private jet raced through the sky. Among the cockpit instruments, a small screen displayed the coordinates of his destination. It was rapidly drawing closer. He tightened his grip on the controls. _'Twenty minutes, if I maintain current speed.'_

He fought back a yawn as he looked out at the expanse of water below. In the hours following the phone calls, Seto had found it impossible to sleep. Despite being gruelingly tired, the feral gaze of his mysterious attacker haunted his mind. It only got worse every time he tried closing his eyes. Seto tolerated it as long as he could, but eventually he was unable to stand it any longer. He had left a note to Mokuba on his desk, promising to call, and prepared his jet for takeoff as the sun began to peek over the eastern horizon.

_'You can ignore me on the phone, but let's see you blow me off that easily in person,' _Seto thought irritably. He shifted the controls, banking to avoid flying directly through a thick, low cloud. Focusing on his destination, he readjusted his course and sped off to the south. If he had been more alert, he might have noticed a glimmer in the sky. A cold glow seemed to trail the jet, like silver flames hiding within a veil of mist.

The sunlight stretched through the window, warming all it touched. Atem yawned and stretched along the length of the bed. He winced from a slight ache in his calf muscle, the only reminder of yesterday's cramp. The warm aroma of food tickled his nose. His mouth watered. He couldn't see the clock from where he lay, but the scent of breakfast meant it was time to get up. Beside him, he felt Yugi stir.

"Is't...morning already...?" Yugi yawned as he rolled over and rubbed his eyes. "Feels like I just lay down a minute ago..."

"I think Malik-kun is making breakfast," Atem remarked as he slid out of bed and made his way to the closet to dig for clothes.

Yugi sat up and blinked against the bright morning light. "I'll...go see if my clothes are dry," he mumbled, noticing Atem was starting to strip out of his _sendut_. _'__I guess he's used to being on his own…or maybe ancient Egypt just had different ideas about modesty….'_ He slipped into the bathroom, preferring a little privacy while getting dressed. His clothes were spread right where he had left them.

"Good, they're almost completely dry," Yugi mumbled to himself as he pulled the shirt over his head. He hopped into his pants and stuffed the pockets with everything he had removed. A thought made him hesitate as he reached for the doorknob. _'I don't want to intrude on Atem__ if he's not dressed yet.' _After a moment, he opened the door a sliver and peeked out through the crack. Atem was dressed from the waist down, leaning into the closet as he looked for something.

"I know I saw at least _one_ clean t-shirt in here yesterday," Atem mumbled as Yugi stepped out of the bathroom. "It can't be laundry time already…."

"What's the matter?"

"I think I'm out of clean shirts," Atem sighed. He began sorting the dirty clothes into a pile on the floor. "I thought I wouldn't have to wash anything for another day or two. I guess I was wrong."

"How do you do it? Now that I think about it, I haven't seen a laundry machine here."

"There weren't any laundry machines around in ancient Egypt either. Sand for scrubbing, water for washing, and elbow grease. That's the way we did it back then. Or at least the servants did it."

"But you don't have any servants here."

"I know. That's why I sometimes cheat when doing chores."

"How do you cheat on chores?"

"Aibou, do I even need to answer that?"

"…It's magic isn't it. No wonder Malik-kun said you don't like Ishizu-san visiting much."

Atem rolled his eyes. "Yeah, she hasn't changed her opinion of magic. And I still say it's damn useful and it's not hurting anyone so there shouldn't be any problem."

Yugi just shook his head. He knew by now that Ishizu and Atem were both too stubborn to give in on this argument. "I'll go see what's for breakfast."

"Morning, Yugi-kun," Malik called from the stove as Yugi stepped into the kitchen. He blinked, noticing that Yugi had tied his hair back. "...You look like you shrunk without your hair sticking up," he couldn't resist snickering.

"Hey, I'm not _that _short," Yugi grumbled as he sat down at the table.

"It sure is nice not having to cook for myself for a change," Atem remarked as he entered the kitchen. His chest remained bare, telling Yugi that he had given up on finding a clean shirt.

"You call that cooking? I thought you just made messes in the kitchen," Malik laughed. He turned off the stovetop and began scooping eggs and bacon out of the frying pan. "By the way, I thought I heard noises last night," he remarked as he filled three plates with food.

Atem shrugged. "It was probably me yelling."

"It was my fault," Yugi interjected. "I forgot to turn my cell phone off and it rang last night."

"Who'd be calling you in the middle of the night?" Malik wondered aloud. "...It wasn't Anzu-chan was it?"

Yugi shook his head. "No, she wouldn't mix up the time zones. She's good at keeping track of that. Besides it wasn't her ring tone."

"It's not important," Atem interjected as his stomach growled. He didn't want to spoil the morning with unpleasant thoughts. "Let's just eat."

Seto glanced down at the small island below his jet. It took only a moment to pick out the best landing spot. He brought the jet down on a wide stretch of beach near the southeast end of the island. The cockpit opened as he turned to grab his briefcase out of habit. It took him a moment to remember he hadn't brought anything with him.

"Should have grabbed a coffee or something," Seto mumbled as he climbed out of his jet. He rubbed his eyes, trying to push back his fatigue. There was only one small residence on the island. "Now, I'll _make _you give me some answers." He began walking towards the house.

Yugi sighed as he sat on the sofa. "My phone is useless right now Malik-kun. It's lost signal again." He scowled at the device in his hand, as if it might be possible to intimidate it into working again. The mark showing signal strength remained unmoved.

"Then how'd someone call you last night?" Malik asked as he paced in front of the bookshelf.

"Signals are temperamental out here," Atem remarked, leaning over the back of the sofa to get a better look at Yugi's cell phone. "I often can't get the same channels on TV that I got the day before. It doesn't surprise me that a phone signal would also come and go."

"Why does it do that?" Malik stopped to look the former pharaoh in the eye.

Atem shrugged. "All I know is what I've seen it do before. I'm not a technology expert; I can't explain the hows and whys."

"Maybe it'll come back again tonight," Yugi suggested hopefully. "Then we can call Rishid-san about the boat and-"

A clunk sounded against the front door. The room filled with silence as the trio turned to stare in the direction of the noise. They glanced at each other, and then back at the door. "Was...that a knock?" Malik asked.

"It sounded like one to me..." Yugi said slowly.

"There's no one else on this island," Atem murmured, "So who's knocking?" The knock sounded again, startling them. Atem could tell from Yugi's expression that he didn't want to be the one to open the door. A quick glance at Malik showed that he seemed to have similar feelings. _'Can't say I blame them. We're supposed to be alone…so who…or _what_…is knocking?'_

Yugi finally broke the silence. "Why are we all suddenly scared of a little noise? It's not like we're in a horror movie or something," he laughed nervously in an attempt to ease the tension. "Even if we were, the scary stuff happens at night."

"Yugi-kun...we've dealt with things that were arguably worse than horror films," Malik sighed as Atem laughed. He tried not to shudder as he forced back the more unpleasant memories of the shadows.

Atem's laughter stopped. "You've got a point," he acknowledged, "But I don't get the feeling there's anything hostile out there…. We'd probably be able to tell if there was some sort of dark magic threatening us, don't you think?" Part of him hoped he wasn't mistaken. He could use some magic if he needed to, but without a source, there were limits to what he was capable of. His thoughts flickered to the deck of cards that lay in the nightstand drawer by his bed. _'I don't have the energy to manage.…'_

A third knock interrupted Atem's thoughts. It seemed more impatient this time. "Alright, fine," he sighed as walked over to the door. "Let's at least find out what's going on." He pulled open the door before anyone could protest. Atem felt his jaw drop as he came face to face with the last person he would have expected to see. Standing on the front porch was none other than Seto Kaiba.

"It's about time," Seto grumbled. He pushed past Atem and into the room without waiting for an invitation.

"What are you doing here?" Atem demanded as soon as the shock wore off.

"What makes you think you can bark out orders whenever you feel like it?" Seto sneered back at the former pharaoh.

Atem's eyes narrowed. "This is my home."

"That doesn't mean you own it." Seto's gaze shifted quickly around the room before settling on Yugi. "This isn't a pleasure visit. I wouldn't be here if you hadn't hung up last night."

Malik's eyes widened. _'Kaiba was the one who called last night? What's going on here?' _he wondered as he watched Yugi shrink away from Seto.

Atem rolled his eyes, not bothering to hide his irritation. "Then maybe you shouldn't make calls when people are trying to sleep."

"I don't appreciate being screamed at in gibberish either," Seto snapped without looking at Atem.

"Kaiba," Yugi said softly, "Why _are _you here?" He took in the sight of Seto standing there in his disheveled business suit. Seto's hair was a mess and there were dark circles under his eyes. His shirt collar seemed buttoned unusually high. _'He reminds me of Jounouchi-kun after a fight,' _Yugi realized. _'What happened to him…?'_

"You didn't give me much choice. After you hung up, I couldn't get through. But you can't ignore me now, can you? Now, as I was trying to explain last night, some freak barged into my office and attacked me."

Atem suppressed a snicker. He was about to throw another verbal dagger at Seto, but something in Yugi's expression made him hesitate. _'Aibou…do you believe him…?'_ he wondered. It was obvious to him that Yugi once again had the uneasy feeling he felt after Seto's call.

"What exactly do you mean by a 'freak'?" Yugi asked. "You didn't use that term last night."

For a moment it looked like Seto wasn't going to answer. Then he sighed and folded his arms. Reluctantly, he explained his encounter with the stranger. As he spoke, he could almost feel those cold hands on his throat again. He shuddered as he remembered how helpless he had felt as the man had squeezed the life out of him. "…And then the lights came back and he was gone. I wouldn't have even noticed the time discrepancy if I hadn't seen the clock on my computer," he finished.

"...So did you...know the guy who attacked you?" Malik asked, breaking the silence that had returned when Seto finished.

"If I _did_, don't you think I'd be looking for him instead of talking with you right now?"

"Then _why _come here?" Atem frowned. "What makes you think _we _know your attacker?"

"Because...," Seto grudgingly admitted, "You know more about how to deal with these kinds of things than I do." It was difficult for him to swallow his pride now that he was actually face to face with the former pharaoh.

Malik's brow furrowed quizzically. "I thought you didn't believe in magic?"

Seto sighed as he found himself confronted by the same thing he had asked himself repeatedly in the hours since the attack. "Whether I believe in it or not is a moot point..." He tilted his head back and pulled down the collar of his shirt. He hadn't gotten a good look in a mirror since the attack, but the collective gasps of shocked horror made him wonder just how bad the bruise was.

_'What sort of force would it take to leave a mark like that...?' _Atem wondered as he stared at Seto's bare throat. An ugly purple blotch stained his skin. The fresh bruise was undeniable proof that something had happened to Seto. A chill ran down Atem's spine. The shape of the mark was eerily similar to that of a human hand.

"It doesn't matter if I think magic is real or fake," Seto said as he pulled his collar back over the bruise. "What I think doesn't change the fact that this freak seems to _think _his 'powers' are real. Nor does my opinion make him any less dangerous. …He also seems like the kind of guy who's crazy enough to carry out his threats."

"And this has to do with us because…?" Yugi prompted Seto to continue.

Seto struggled to say what was in his mind. "You three…and your little friend club that isn't here…are the only ones I know of…who talk about magic like it's real. Hell, you're probably the _only_ ones who will take me seriously. So this nutcase should be right up your alley."

"So...you want our help?" Atem asked quietly. "I can recall a few times we could have used your help, but when we asked all you did was sneer at us.…"

"Atem..." Yugi tried to get the pharaoh's attention. He would prefer not to see a fight break out.

"So now that the shoe's on the other foot, you're going to hold that against me...?" Seto growled, turning to face Atem. "Don't forget the reason you even have a roof over your head is because of me!"

"_Meriui__!_" Yugi called, seeing Atem's fists clench. He jumped up from the sofa as Atem's head snapped towards him. "Please don't- Ahh!" A sudden burst of light erupted in the middle of the room, temporarily blinding everyone. A hollow, cold laugh filled the air as Seto's attacker now stood where the silver flames had been.

"_YOU!_" Seto exclaimed, taking a step back.

The man tilted his head. "So you are finally starting to remember me, Seto-chan? ...Or are you just remembering my _actions_?" His icy gaze lingered for a moment on the bruise that lay hidden under Seto's collar. "Do you think you can be rid of me so easily? That your little friends can somehow save you? Fool."

"L-look," Seto tried to keep his voice steady. "I don't know what the hell you want, but I want you to leave me alone!"

A feral grin spread over the man's features. With the same eerie speed he had demonstrated in the Kaiba Corp office, he suddenly turned to Malik. Malik let out a yelp of pain as the man violently wrenched his arm, twisting it behind his back. He tried to pull away but the man twisted his arm further. Malik bit his lip to keep from whimpering. It felt like this man was about to rip his shoulder off.

"Malik-kun!" Yugi and Atem exclaimed simultaneously.

"I will make this simple enough for even you, Seto-chan," the man crooned. "I would prefer not to harm your little...Malik-kun, since he has no part in our dispute. However, if you wish to see him remain among the living, you will meet me at the time and place I have specified... Once I decide when and where that will be, you will come and we will settle this. And once your blood has been spilt in atonement...I will finally let you have peace."

"...And if I refuse...?" Seto said softly.

"Tsk tsk, Seto-chan. _You _were the one who asked how to resolve this quickly. Are you saying the safety of your friend and the peace you desire is not worth it?" Sarcasm dripped from his tone. The man raked his cold eyes over Seto's face, trying to determine the thoughts behind the neutral mask he wore. "…Oh _dear_...don't tell me I'll have to raise the stakes. Very well...if I must, I will take someone else to ensure your cooperation. Such a shame. I _was _hoping to spare little Mokuba-kun."

A cold chill swept through Seto's body. His mind suddenly plagued him with the image of his brother crying out as this stranger slowly tortured him. "You leave my brother alone!"

The man smirked. "I seem to have touched a nerve. _Excellent_. Now I know _exactly _how to ensure your cooperation." His cold laugh rang out as he disappeared with Malik in another burst of flame.

_Atem felt someone gently shaking his shoulder. The haze of sleep clouded his mind as he yawned. _**'**When did I fall asleep?**' **_Slowly he forced his leaden eyelids to open. "...What?"_

_"We've made it back to the boat," Yugi said softly. His apologetic expression was hard to see in the light of the waning moon. "Sorry to wake you."_

_With a groan, Atem sat up in the dune buggy and looked around. It was darker than he thought it should be. Lights from the Ishtars' boat reflected off the river. He couldn't see anyone around except Yugi. "How long was I out?"_

_"About two and a half hours…Malik-kun said we shouldn't disturb you. I don't blame him; you were really out of it."_

_"It took more energy than I expected to deal with the slavers." He paused for a moment, ignoring the ache from his lip. "Is something wrong? You must have had a reason for waking me."_

_"There's…not really anything _wrong_, but Malik-kun is talking with Rishid-san and Ishizu-san. I overheard some of it and thought you might want to be there for it…."_

_Atem climbed out of the vehicle. "What are they talking about?"_

_"Those slavers. Ishizu-san didn't sound very happy about it."_

_"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Atem muttered as the argument from breakfast came back to him. It seemed hard to believe that it had really been just that morning. "Where are they?"_

_"I'll show you." Yugi turned and made his way to the boat. Soft footfalls told him that Atem was following closely. He led the former pharaoh down the branching corridors. Soon they could hear snippets of a heated conversation from behind a partly closed door. Atem placed his hand on the door and was about to push it open when something he heard caused him to hesitate._

_"...heard rumors about this group in town today," Rishid was saying in his level tone. "Their name means 'Blood Cloud,' I think."_

_A chill rippled down Atem's spine as the gypsy's words returned to him. _**'**Was this what she meant? Is she in league with them? But she couldn't have known where we were going...or how we'd try to go back to the boat...**'**_ A warm hand on his shoulder brought Atem back to reality._

_"Are you alright?" Yugi whispered. "You look pale."_

_"It's…just tired," Atem lied. He gave a slight nod towards the door. "Will you join the conversation?"_

_Yugi shook his head. "If it's alright...I'll just wait out here."_

"_Alright then." Atem's words brought a shy smile of relief to Yugi's face. _**'**He isn't afraid to stand strong if he has to, but that doesn't mean Aibou enjoys fighting,**'**_ he mused in an attempt to distract himself from thoughts of the gypsy. Steeling himself for what he expected would be unpleasant, the former pharaoh pushed open the door and stepped into the room._

_Rishid was the first to notice Atem since he stood facing the door. His eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected spectator. Malik noticed the expression on his face and turned to see what Rishid was looking at._

_"Uh, sis..." Malik mumbled, trying to interrupt Ishizu._

_Ishizu had her back to Atem. He had no clue what she might be saying; she had lapsed into Arabic as she spoke. It was at least obvious from her tone that she was quite upset. Atem watched calmly as her brother continued his attempts to get her attention._

_"Sis…Sis...SISTER!"_

_"WHAT!" she finally exclaimed in Japanese._

_"Behind you..."_

_Ishizu turned and stiffened when she saw Atem. "Pharaoh! When did you...who told you...?"_

_"No one told me to come here," Atem quickly lied. The last thing he wanted to do was get Yugi in trouble. "I could hear your voices from down the hallway." For a moment, he felt a sense of déjà vu. The setting and people involved may be different, but he was strongly reminded of the political tasks he had dealt with while on the throne. Often he'd had to skew the truth or tell people what they wanted to hear to ensure that vital tasks would be done. Atem didn't enjoy resorting to such deceptions, but sometimes the situation demanded it._

_Ishizu stared him down, trying to figure out if he was hiding anything. Atem kept his expression blank as he held her gaze. Another thing he had learned during his reign was how to hide his emotions. He couldn't deny how invaluable this neutral mask had proven to be, in past and present alike. Only one person knew Atem well enough to see through his bluff._

_"My brother was just telling me about what happened earlier." Ishizu finally glanced away as she spoke._

_"Pharaoh," Rishid interjected calmly, "If those men were part of a certain group I was hearing rumors of in Cairo, then you were very fortunate to get away."_

_"It seems there will always be those who exploit the desert for wicked purposes," Atem shook his head._

_"Was it really necessary?" Ishizu asked harshly. "Did you truly need to resort to magic?" She couldn't hide her displeasure any longer._

_Malik tried to placate her before another shouting match could erupt. "I told you sis, there were eight of us and seven of them, Jounouchi-kun was hurt, AND they had weapons! I don't know what else we could have done to get away."_

_"You could have waited for a better chance to escape. You could have let them fall asleep or something. Anything would have been better than using magic!"_

_"They were about to tie us up! It was a now-or-never moment!"_

_"Ishizu-san," Atem interrupted, "I only did what I had to do at the time. They were armed. We weren't. Jounouchi-kun was hurt. If we hadn't done _some_thing about their weapons then more of us would have been hurt when we escaped, chains or no chains." He paused for a moment to wipe away the dried blood from his lower lip. Aside from the ache, he had completely forgotten about the wound until now. "As Rishid-san said, we got lucky. __Nechreduat pa aui shesau ne aniu snet. Geri nen sedja war ar amenen merer re ari nefa__."_

_It took a moment to figure out what Atem said, but Malik and Rishid paled at his words. Their gaze fixed on Ishizu. Neither of them wanted to see her reaction._

_Ishizu's eyes widened in shock. "You dare...?"_

_"Yes I dare," Atem cut her off. He let the neutral expression vanish from his face, showing just how upset he was for a brief moment. He folded his arms, unconsciously straightening his back and shoulders as he did so. His body language gave off that same air of authority he'd shown at breakfast._

_"Because you don't seem to take into consideration that I don't have to lift a finger for anyone if I don't want to," Atem continued before Ishizu could answer. "When I use _any_ magic my intention is to help. The manner in which it is used should be more important than the fact that magic is used at all. I said it before and I say it again now: sealing the Millennium Items for good does not mean that all magic, Egyptian or otherwise, is gone. Many things, including magic, can be dangerous in the wrong hands. By the logic that you're using, we should try to get rid of cars because they kill people whenever a bad crash happens. Never mind the fact that most accidents happen because of the _people _driving them rather than the vehicles themselves."_

_Ishizu opened her mouth to argue, but Atem held up a hand to stop her. "Amnen," he said firmly. "It's clear that you refuse to back down. Also, I do not wish to alter my stance on the subject at this time. So it would seem this is an issue where we must agree to disagree."_

_"...At least you were able to secure another vehicle," Ishizu mumbled after a few moments._

_"And why is that...?" Atem blinked, his shoulders relaxing slightly._

_"I had to leave one of ours at the shop." Rishid answered. He seemed glad to change the subject. "I presume you were told that the sandstorm damaged one of the jeeps?"_

_Atem hid a frown behind his blank mask at the thought of the jeeps. He remained silent, but nodded._

"_Well, it proved to be worse than we expected. It won't be fixed for two or three days. If you hadn't managed to acquire the slavers' vehicle, we would have been forced to wait until the repairs were finished."_

_"With the dune buggy, we can return to the shrine tomorrow," Ishizu added. _**'**And then this will all be over with.**'**

_Malik cast a sympathetic glance at Atem. He watched the frown spread over the pharaoh's face as his eyes narrowed. _**'**I know how you feel, pharaoh,**'**_he thought, recalling their conversation on the deck. _**'**The feeling of being chained down by something you don't want to do... I know it so well. I may not be able to get inside your head like Yugi-kun, but I definitely understand this.**'**

_"__Aset, ar merert__." A hint of anger shook Atem's voice. "But I will stay." From the corner of his eye, he noticed Malik give him a quick supporting grin._

_"Pharaoh...what are you saying?" Rishid asked in quiet confusion._

_"I won't be returning to Kul Elna; I have no desire to enter the afterlife."_

_"WHAT!" Ishizu yelled._

_"The Pharaoh has spoken, sis," Malik quipped. _**'**How ironic…. I once caused so much trouble for Atem, and yet now I'm probably the Tomb Keeper who supports him the most.**'**

_Ishizu whirled to face Malik. "Did you put this crazy idea into his head?" she demanded._

_"Enough!" Atem jumped between Malik and Ishizu, forcing them apart before the argument could get any worse. He met Ishizu's eye. "Malik-kun did talk to me. But not until _after _I'd already made up my mind about this. You have no need to blame him."_

"_But-!"_

"_Herit! __I do not wish to continue this discussion. My decision was mine alone." Before anything else could be said, Atem turned his back on the Ishtars and walked out the door._

_Yugi stood in the hall waiting for Atem to come out. A weight seemed to lift when he saw the former pharaoh. "She didn't take it well," he remarked as Ishizu's voice trailed after Atem._

_Atem shut the door behind him. "You were listening," Atem noted. The tension left his shoulders as he sighed. "No. She didn't seem fond of the idea at all. But I don't care if she agrees or not." He spoke calmly, feeling more relaxed just being near Yugi._

_"I didn't hear all of it," Yugi admitted. He held up a plate of sushi and a can of soda. "I raided the kitchen. You slept through dinner, so I thought you might be hungry."_

_"Thank you," Atem smiled as his stomach growled. He hadn't even realized he was hungry until he saw the food. "Can we go somewhere quiet? I'd prefer not to be bothered for a while…."_

_Yugi nodded. "We can go to my room and lock the door."_

_"Sounds good. Lead the way, Aibou." He took the plate and soda from Yugi, and then followed him to the other end of the boat._


End file.
